


Lord of Death

by seraphim_grace



Series: Dathyl [1]
Category: Gundam Wing/AC
Genre: Fantasy, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-09
Updated: 2010-08-09
Packaged: 2017-10-11 00:42:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 28
Words: 57,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/106339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seraphim_grace/pseuds/seraphim_grace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Following an explosion our intrepid pilots wake up in a world where magic is real and Duo can talk to the dead</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Halcyon Palace

**Author's Note:**

> The god of death

The god of death

Part one

* * *

The male voice shouting was what had woken Duo from his deep sleep, "Adam, Adam, what the hell did you blow up this time? I felt the reverberations upstairs." There was a small period of silence before the man shouted again in accented Japanese. "Adam, answer me when I talk to you?" Duo carefully opened one violet eye and then the other. He was in bed and naked. The bed was clean and smelt, he took a deep breath, of gunpowder. In fact the whole room stank of cordite and burned sulphur. He patted across the bed with a hand to find another warm body, one that grabbed his wrist and held it in a bone crushing grip. His eyes met a pair of hard cobalt eyes that urged him to silence. It was typical, he woke up in a strange place with some strange man shouting and he was in bed with the perfect soldier.

"Adam!" The man shouted. There was a period of silence, in which time Duo took the opportunity to look around the room. The bed they had woken in had posts at each corner with a canopy and curtains, and three out of four of them were pulled tight against the draught. There was a small window with a bronze vase with flowers, and the light suggested that it was early morning. "Are you deaf again? One of these days your hearing won't come back."

"You bought me it." Another man shouted back. "I haven't stained it black in the explosion, have I?"

"Hearing." The first man corrected. "Not earring." There was a slow intake of breath, "what did you blow up this time?"

"I created a temporal rift." The one called Adam shouted with some pride, "I summoned demons from the aether." There was a dull thump.

"Again, Adam!" The man muttered something that Duo couldn't hear.

"In the other room." Adam shouted, obviously he couldn't realise how loudly he was shouting because the bang had deafened him. Duo had had that happen to him once or twice so he understood completely. "They were unconscious so I put them to bed. They're only boys, how dangerous can they be?"

The other man said something that sounded suspiciously like baka. Then the door to the bedroom opened and with a few steady strides the man had crossed the floor and yanked open the curtain over the end of the bed. "Wake up." He said. He was a tall broad man with a white stripe at each temple that made him look like a badger, he wore a black uniform with a silver sigil at his breast and there was an aura of power about him that gave Duo a moment's pause.

"Adam says you're demons." He said bluntly, "that he summoned you from the demon dimension. Is this true?"

It was Heero than answered him. "We are travellers." He answered, "we were in an explosion and woke up here, we are not demons." He was always economical with words and he had to be careful what he said in case this was an Oz trap, lulling them into a false sense of security to see whether or not they would reveal sensitive information. "I think this Adam saved us from our impending doom."

"Gotta thank him for that." Duo added throwing his braid over his shoulder in a look of nonchalance, one hand pinned the sheet to his shoulder, Heero had no such compunctions in regard to his nudity. "Now if we can get our clothes back, we'll just be going."

"Where are you going?" the man asked, "I will arrange for transport, this is not the first time that Adam's experiments have had unforeseen consequences when they go awry. I am Alister D'Cevni, secretary to the king, I can arrange transport for you as far as you'd like."

"Where are we?" Heero asked.

"This is the palace of Halcyon in the city of Dathyl-of-the-Jetties in the country of Dathyl. Where do you need to go?" The man was so earnest that Duo knew in that moment that this wasn't an Oz trap, or if it was it was designed to drive them mad. It wasn't Oz's style though to play with their minds like this.

"We need to get to the Cinq kingdom." Heero said, "its sovereign will see us safely home. If you can arrange a shuttle for us."

The man puzzled over the word. "Is that some demon magic?" He asked, "a shuttle is a part of a loom, I can arrange a carriage but I will have to consult with my brother, Tobin, as to the whereabouts of the Cinq kingdom, he is much better travelled than I. I will send my brother Terenz here with clothes, he is a physician and will make sure that Adam's meddling did not harm you in any way."

"If we could have something to eat." Duo said, "I don't know about Heero here, but I'm about ready to eat a horse."

The broad man, who had introduced himself as Alister frowned. "It will be no problem, I am sorry, my manners are remiss, although I introduced myself I forgot to claim your names. I take it, sir, that you are Heero." He looked at Heero it was Duo's fault that he had gathered that name, "and I trust that this is your lady wife."

Duo burst out laughing as Heero went through seven shades of red. "There are so many things wrong with that." He howled with laughter. "First and foremost he hates me and b I'm not a girl."

Alister's face hardened. "My apologies, master." He left it open waiting to be supplied the name.

"Duo Maxwell." He said proudly, "but mostly they call me Shinigami."

The word meant something to Alister for he frowned. "That complicates matters. I will have Terenz call on you, and have our house keeper arrange lodgings for you for the duration of your stay in Halcyon. May I suggest that you do not wander alone."

"Is that a threat, Alister?" Heero asked, trying his best to look as menacing as one could trapped in bed by modesty with only a sheet to shield him.

"Not, at all, Master Heero, merely that Halcyon is large and labyrinthine, it holds many dark memories and I would not have you lost in it's halls when I offered you my protection." He went to turn. "What have you done this time, Adam?" he murmured under his breath.

"Don't forget the food." Duo called after him.

Heero flopped back on the bed with a sigh.

* * *

The man called Alister was as good as his word within half an hour a tall blonde man came in with clothes, "don't mind me," he said, "Alister said you were expecting me, I'm Terenz, I'm the Royal physician, I'll just look you over and then let you dress and I'll march you along to the kitchens, Rachel's fascinated with the idea that Adam has managed to summon such handsome demons and she's started baking, you can't beat Rachel's cooking, although I don't live in Halcyon I almost always eat my meals here."

Heero blinked at the tirade, even Duo at his best didn't talk that much. The man didn't stop for breath he just continued on and on and on. "So which of you handsome boys is Heero," he had the name written on his hand, "I swear if my Val could see the pair of you he'd be stood at the door to make sure I didn't steal you both away and run off to Duramatsen and install you both as my pleasure slaves, but I love my Val so you can rest assured that I won't, so Heero, if you'd like to put on a shirt I can examine you and make sure everything is tip top and then we can see about getting you something to eat, and you're probably exhausted."

"Wow." Duo said, "do you breathe through your ears?"

"Duo." Heero hissed in warning but the strange man only laughed.

"You know, everyone asks that, Braea, the First Sword of the Garvem, keeps threatening to cut out my tongue and he keeps hyperventilating when I'm near because he breathes for me. Overall I find it very funny, if there wasn't so many people determined to keep me safe then I'm sure I'd be mute. Now, come on the pair of you, into some clothes whilst I warm up my equipment." Duo burst out laughing and Terenz had the good manners to look mock offended. "If you carry on like this, young man, I'll have to send Grace and something tells me you don't want her doing the examination." Both boys went very pale at that thought. "Now come on, Hero," he didn't extend the e the way he was meant to and Duo had the distinct impression that it was deliberate. "Put the shirt on and we can get this over with."

Heero pulled the strange long shirt over his head, then got out of the bed, it came to his knees covering him quite well, except the light from the window made the shirt transparent. Duo sniggered as he pulled the second shirt over his head. "Adam said to apologise, but your clothes were a mess when he found you, you were covered in some kind of soot and clear goop and they were torn to shreds, it was easier to give you new, but they are away being mended. We thought you'd want to keep them, now, Hero, if you want to give me your hand." Heero gritted his teeth.

"Terence," Duo deliberately mispronounced the name. "it's pronounced Heero, you elongate the e."

Terenz smiled as he measured Heero's pulse, "now stick out your tongue." Heero did, he put his hand on the length of his neck. "Any discomfort?" He asked. Heero shook his head. "You're absolutely fine, now come on, Duo."

Duo climbed out of the bed and offered the doctor his hand. "Interesting scars." He said, pushing aside the neck of Duo's collar. "You and I can talk about it later, they're so clean I'd say that they were caused by a poker or a hot whip. Now stick out your tongue." He looked at the tongue. He then laid his hand on his neck. "Any discomfort?" He asked.

"Well, doc, there's a bit of a draught under this dress of yours, and it does make me a little nervous." Duo answered with a laugh.

"Are you hungry, Duo?" Terenz laughed, Heero snorted, "and you sleep poorly, I bet, also you're probably losing more of that beautiful hair than usual. Well, not to worry, I'll get Adam to mix something up to help with it, he's super healthy and you're just a little under the weather, in fact, I'd guess at stress and possibly depression, nothing that rest and care won't cure you of."

Duo looked at the man aghast. "And you got all that from looking at my tongue?" He asked.

"And your scars, your pulse is erratic and your skin clammy, but as I said, it's nothing to worry about, now put some clothes on, love, and I'll take you to the kitchens and feed up that bottomless pit of a stomach of yours. I get the impression that our Rachel is going to feed the pair of you until you can't walk and I have to roll you into the rooms that Dieina has put aside for you." It took all of 0.2 seconds for Heero to tug on the leather breeches and start on the heavy woollen coat that they had given him, before Duo had shook out the breeches. "I love your hair." Terenz said touching Duo's braid, "mine wouldn't grow like that, you should meet our other brothers, Tobin's hair grows like that, but me I'm stuck with blonde fluff, all my brothers are dark haired but me as blonde as a wheat sheaf, not that I was the only one but I'm the only one left." He was silent for a moment, then he brightened, "are you ready? If so, I'll take you to the kitchens, did Alister warn you not to wander off on your own, because Halcyon's massive and paths don't always lead where they ought? Do you read? Alister's told me that you can make full use of the facilities and the library in Halcyon is the best in the world."

"I'd like to use your online connection." Heero said bluntly.

Terenz tested the words, "on-line connection?" He shrugged, "if we've got it you can use it, but I have no idea what it is. Do either of you boys play Lakros, there is a league here in the palace and I'm sure they won't mind you playing, I imagine at some point the king will want a word with the pair of you, being demons at all." He laughed at that, "And Val will want a word, because I'm going to be showing you around, but a word of advice, stay out of Tobin's way, he's not really good company at the moment."

"Why's that?" Duo asked.

"He's in mourning." Terenz answered blithely, "and beware the Lord Matherion, the Seraphim I imagine will have questions for you."

"The Seraphim?" Heero asked.

"A militant group from the church." Terenz said, "they hunt witches and demons."

Heero made an o shape with his mouth as it made sense. "They won't hurt you directly under Alister's protection, but they will do everything they can to get you out of it."

The palace of Halcyon was massive, Duo noticed as they stepped out of the cellars that Adam had lived in and moved into the palace proper, it was easily as big as Peacemillion and the air here was thick with ozone and other smells of the sea. There were other smells he didn't recognise. The palace was made of golden sandstone and decorated with wall hangings and weapons. In fact it looked like the kind of palace one saw in history books, very old history books. He led them down a flight of stairs that hugged the wall with no safety rail into a large courtyard and into the kitchen where a large old woman was stirring a pot. She was a large woman with hands like slabs of meat and arms like a bear. She wore a utilitarian dress that had seen better days and her white apron was stained with blood.

"You must be the demons." She said with a smile, "skin and bones the pair of you, sit, make yourselves comfortable and I'll make sure that you get all you want to eat and more, no one goes hungry in my kitchen, I'm Rachel, and no matter what Dieina says I'm not out to make you fat, just pleasantly plump." She laughed at her own joke as she fetched two pewter plates down from a cupboard and laid them down on a large worktable, "sit down, lads, come on, and help yourself to milk and beer," she fetched down two bowls and spooned some of the substance from the pot into them and pushed them towards them. "Go on, it's not poison, it's chicken." Duo warily lifted his spoon, he knew better than to trust strangers bearing food, even as hungry as he was, and took a small sip of the soup, measuring it for poison and flavour, and then dived into it with gusto. Heero was more cautious, watching to see if Duo was taken sick.

"Heero," Duo said looking at him, "if you don't eat that, I will."

"Nonsense," Rachel said with a smile, "there's plenty more where that came from, but I've got cinnamon buns in the oven, and there's plenty of bread, and I've got fish stew on for later. Now give me your bowl and I'll give you some more."

"Rachel," Duo said with a grin as he handed her the bowl, "now is a woman as beautiful as you married?" Heero rolled his eyes as the woman giggled.

"Oh I don't know," she said with a smile, "young men these days." She swayed across the kitchen like someone who had, in her day, been quite a coquette and how with the flattery of a handsome young man remembered what it was like to be young and beautiful.

* * *

Author's Note

This is an AU, obviously, set in the world of Dathyl which is an experiment for me as Dathyl I created for an original fiction, and all the characters in it are set at the end of that fiction with the exception of our boys, so the plan was simple so insert them to practise characterisation, scene setting whilst keeping my hand in.


	2. The Halcyon Palace

The chatelaine, Dieina, led the boys to a large and well appointed bedroom with a balcony that overlooked the courtyard. It was dominated by a single large bed with four posts and was heavily canopied, piled high with quilts and furs. Duo looked at it with a low whistle as he prepared to launch himself unto it. Heero caught him with practised grace and gave the woman a look that suggested that he couldn't take him anywhere.

The chatelaine, as she had been introduced to them, wore a simple black dress with a high collar with a silver chain that formed two loops about her breasts, serving as the waist of her gown. She had long black hair that was straight and loose down her back, but her skin was a golden colour, warmed by the firelight, and paler than Heero's, but her eyes were large and almond shaped, pulled tight at the corners, her mouth was wide and full as if designed to be kissed. There was something about her that suggested, however, that it was not in their best interest to even suggest that to her.

"Hey," Duo said taking in the dark red furniture and the heavy wood, the fireplace was larger than some safe house's they'd been in, "there's only one bed."

Dieina's expression remained unchanged. "It is cold in the Dathyl winter," she said calmly, "it is common for guests to bed down together, however if it is a problem I can arrange another room." Although her tone was even there was something about the way that she said it that suggested that arranging another room would be a problem that they really didn't want to bother her with.

"It's fine," Heero said politely.

"Between you and me," Duo said behind his hand to the Dieina, "Heero snores."

"It's not my place to judge, sir." Dieina said quietly. "If you require anything, just ring the bell, someone will answer. Now I will be going, unless there is anything else you require."

"That bed looks awfully comfy," Duo said with a sly glint in his eye.

"It's not my place to say, sir." Dieina's tone suggested that she was offended at the mere suggestion that the bed might not be comfortable. She had a rare gift of saying many things whilst not saying anything at all.

Duo took it as the opportunity to launch himself at the bed. "Hee-chan, it's super comfy, is this a down mattress?" He looked at the chatelaine carefully.

"Yes, sir. If that is all?" Although the question was loaded everything about it suggested that it better be all.

"Yes, thank you." Heero said escorting the woman in black to the door and closing it behind her. He looked at where Duo lay sprawled on the bed amongst the furs looking almost wanton and made a hn noise.

"Oh, come on," Duo said sprawling over the furs, "how often do we get the chance to live like kings?"

"We are unsure of our position here, we should start reconnaissance, this may be an Oz prison." He started opening the wardrobes and doors around the room to reveal a privy and a small room with a copper bath and a smaller fireplace.

"If so, I have to commend Generally Tries Harder on his cells, this is fabulous. It is like a five star hotel in medieval Europe."

"General Treize Kushrenada." Heero corrected automatically.

Duo just grinned at him. "Look, if it is an Oz trick to get information out of us they're being really sneaky, I mean their stage director hasn't missed a detail, this castle is tricked out like something in a picture book, I can't even hear the buzz of electrical wires, and there are no sockets anywhere I noticed. What can they learn?" Heero went pale at that.

"How we pilot the gundams." Heero answered quietly.

"We're stuck here, we know nothing about our hosts who say we're free to leave, we might as well make the most of it."

"I'll sleep on the couch," Heero said looking around the room, there was a small cushioned ottoman on the bed.

The library at Halcyon was the wonder of Dathyl and the empire at the north, the books G had owned had been few and far between, most of his library stored on computer so Duo had no preparation for this. From floor to ceiling there were books, they were piled on shelves, in random mountains across the floor, on tables, and chairs, but they were not what transfixed him. In the centre of the room, as if the library was a frame, was a pane of glass dazzled him. At first he thought the figure illuminated by the moon was a ghost, a knight on the battlements who stared out of the glass with such sadness he felt the urge to cry as he slew the dragon beneath his feet.

"Who is he?" He asked his guide, thinking that Heero would be as dazzled by this as he was, that Heero would appreciated it. It had been Heero's idea after all to suborn a servant into bringing him here.

"That's Menelaus." The boy replied as if that answered anything at all, or as if he was an idiot that he didn't recognise the figure.

Menelaus amazed him in ways he'd never expected to be amazed. His beauty was like Heero's, he was tall and slender in a way that belied his strength with white pale skin and black hair. His eyes were green and narrow. He wore a silver cuirass with three long scratches along it where the long sinuous pearly purple dragon raked its claws across it. Yet Menelaus did not look at the dragon at his feet, he looked into the room, directly at Duo, one foot on the dragon's raised claw, the other on its craw, his black sword in the dragon's mouth, his red cloak torn to shreds, but a bloody line crossed his nose from forehead to under his eye, a scar that didn't disfigure him in any way. It was the kind of man that a boy could fall in love with, even if he was only a portrait on glass. It was the best kind of hero, Duo thought, one that could never let you down.

"Who was Menelaus?" He asked the ignorant servant that had led him here.

"He's a character in some book." The man shrugged. "Will that be all?"

"Yes, that's fine." He turned to tell the man to leave and stopped again, fixed in place by something else now. A painting of a woman in a white gown with her long white hair falling away from her face as she laughed. The woman was more beautiful than anything Duo had ever seen before, around her neck she wore a collar of diamonds, and the picture was animated and loved. Whoever painted it had loved that woman, he could see that. He wouldn't ask the servant who she was, he would either not know or be rude to him, but he would show this room of wonders to Heero, and if it was an Oz trap and they were holed up in Treize's castle as Heero continually pointed out, then the general was very lucky to be blessed with this room.

"Haunting, isn't he?" A woman said stepping out from behind Duo, her hair was a pale strawberry blond pulled away from her face by a crown of beaten gold leaves, and her dress was made of layers and layers of whisper thin silk. She looked more like she belonged in a forest than in this library, but as Duo looked closer he could see the tracery of scars that the bangles on her wrists couldn't quite hide and a strange dark blemish around her throat. "People have spent years trying to work out what went through the artist's head when he was created. Knowing the tragedy of Menelaus better than most I simply wonder if it is foreshadowing." She looked at Duo, "what do you think he regrets so vividly, sir?"

"War," He answered without thinking, "he regrets that he must kill something so magnificent." The hero on the dragon reminded him of Heero, he did what he had to do even though it tore him up inside.

"The women he killed the dragon for eventually betrayed him." The woman said, sitting down in one of the plush chairs. "Does that not colour your view of the dragonslayer?"

"No," Duo answered, still staring at the glass like it was alive. "He does what he has to do, even if it kills him."

"You have beautiful hair, sir, will you permit me?" She reached out to touch the braid but held her hand back until he gave her permission.

He snatched his hair away. "I'm sorry, it means a lot to me." He said, then lowered his eyes bashfully in front of this woman. He had never met anyone like her before, she dazzled and frightened him. "My guardian," he stopped, he had no idea why he had almost told her about Sister Helen.

"It is fine," she said patiently with a warm and gentle smile, a smile like Sister Helen's. "I am merely used to having my own way with such things, people defer to me, it is refreshing to find someone who does not, and merely not out of spite. I am Aeka, will you grace me with your name?"

"Duo," he stammered out.

She smiled again, aware of the effect she was having on him. There was no way she could not be aware of the effect she was having. "You must be one of Adam's demons, and I was told that the pair of you were hideously dangerous and I was to stay clear, instead I find that you are only a boy, though the way you carry yourself tells me you have seen horrors that none here can fathom."

Duo clenched at that. "I have seen worlds destroyed." He said firmly, "I have destroyed worlds."

At that Aeka touched the strange discoloration around her throat. "That I understand, master Duo." She smiled again, but it looked fake on her beautiful face, "Know that you are welcome here in Halcyon, and if any one questions you or your purpose tell them that the Lady Aeka gave you leave."

"Then are you a lady?" He asked.

Her answering grin took him by surprise, it was a conspirator's grin. "No, dear Duo, I am not a lady, I am a queen." She sat back into the cushioned chair that was behind her, "I am the Queen of Dathyl, hence I was told to stay away from the demons just in case they were a cunning plan to kill either myself or my husband."

"Heero thinks this is an Oz trap." Duo said, "he thinks that if we ignore it then they'll get bored and put us in a normal prison and we can escape."

"Do you do that a lot?" She asked, "escape from prison, I mean."

He flashed her his most mischievous grin, "only when we get caught." He said.


	3. The Seraphim Chapterhouse

Dathyl was a city of slums and spires, of extreme poverty and great wealth, of religious fervour and darkest sin. It spanned from the docks of the Bay of Pots to the great palace of Halcyon, linked by Well Street, the artery that fed the suburbs of the city. It was also bigger than it looked. Heero was completely lost.

Houses piled on top of each other blocking streets that would normally lead the way he wanted to go, he was forced to double back on himself and take different alleys that led him deeper into the heart of the city, away from Well Street which his guide had advised him to stick to, and more and more towards the large black church like building with the strange spines sticking from it's towers. When he reached it he was surprised by the carvings that surrounded the heavy double doors, it showed beautiful women that were obviously angels lifting armoured men and granting them wings where headless women with their chests open lay below. Filing away the image for future reference he rapped loudly on the door, hoping to enquire within for directions back to the palace.

The man who opened the door was small and thin and wore heavy armour, he stank of rust and it appeared his hair hadn't been washed in several weeks. "This is the Seraphim Chapterhouse, how is it we can be of service?" Heero recognised the name, Terenz had told them to be careful of the Seraphim, he had said that the Seraphim killed demons, and judging from the carving around the doors they cut off their heads and cut out their hearts.

"I wish to return to the Halcyon palace." Heero answered abruptly. "I am lost."

"Certainly sir," the soldier said opening the door wide, "please come in until we can find an Enamoured to lead you back, perhaps you have heard of our order, you accent is strange, are you from distant shores?"

"I am from L1." Heero answered abruptly. "I have heard that you kill demons." He answered what he thought was politically.

The man gave an oily smile "Then word of our majesty has reached as far as the shores from which you have travelled. Stay with us a while, let us tell you of our manifesto."

"Hn." Heero growled. "I just want directions."

"Certainly sir," the man said, he didn't walk as much as slink. "Let me get my cloak and I shall guide you back. My name is Aethylwyd."

"That is fine, Lord Adjutant," a woman said; she was a lovely with a fresh-faced with skin the colour of wild honey and long black hair that she wore braided in a crown about her head. Her only concessions to rank and wealth were a ruby that hung over her forehead from a silver chain along her centre parting and another that hung from her silk choker. She wore a sleeveless jacket and pair of leather trousers and spiked boots, on her arm was a tattoo of a pair of open wings, their tips dipped, by the looks of it, in ink. "I am attending her majesty this afternoon, I will guide him back."

"My lady," the adjutant, Aethylwyd said, "you honour us both with your presence. Please pass my congratulations to my Lord the Bishop, your husband." There was some kind of malice in his words but the woman smiled, it was a hard smile and it somehow suited her.

"Certainly, Aethylwyd, he holds the Seraphim in such high esteem after all. Young Master, I am Grace D'Allaro, Lady of Amitre, will you give me your name."

"Heero Yuy." He answered, this woman was more than a match for Sally Po, who he had immediately thought to compare her to, she was more than a match for Lady Une, this woman might even be a match for Doctor J, there was no give in her at all. She rubbed the tattoo on her arm noticing Heero staring at it. "That design." He said, "where did you get it?"

"It's the Seraphim one." Aethylwyd answered, raising the back of his jerkin to show an identical symbol of outstretched wings, though he had two pairs. "All the Seraphim wear it."

Heero turned and repeated the gesture to show the outstretched wings on his own back. The two of them looked on in shock. "An Enamoured's wings." Grace said, "and you say you come from a place of no Seraphim."

"Coincidence." Heero grunted. "I would like to make my way back now."

"Yet you hold some importance to your wings." The woman pressed, she didn't walk, she strode and people moved out of her way as they stepped into the crowded thoroughfares, not because of who she was, although he assumed that that must play part of it, but of the way she was. She would crush anything that got in her way. She reminded him of Lady Une.

"I have had them nearly all my life." He answered calmly. "I do not remember a time when I did not have them."

"Here an Enamoured, or Seraphim in training must be at least fourteen, after a year he can become Devoted and the rest of the wings are inked in. It is sacrilege to mark someone under that age. Who was it that marked you?"

"I don't know." He answered honestly, "I assume it was Odin Lowe." She asked him no other questions after that, her curiosity for the moment assuaged and just walked him back in silence to the monumental structure that was the Halcyon palace. It was as big as a city in its own right.

Duo lay back on the bed, arms akimbo as he sang the strange song that the guardsman had taught him. "The women of Tanis are bonny and gay

And you can't trust a word a Sidin woman says

And overall I'll take what I may,

But you can't beat a woman of Dathyl."

"Are you from Dathyl?" He had asked Aeka, who was queen of Halcyon, and she laughed and said, "No, I'm from Honeybourne, and you won't believe what I said." Remembering it, Duo snickered, sat up to take another mouthful of the spicy red tea that was sweet with honey, he was going to have to get the recipe for Quatre, because it was delicious, and given him a slightly pleasant buzz.

"There's a woman in Danev who has eyes that are deep

And a girl in Caelum who without me won't sleep

And the women of Muchine well they play for keeps,

But you can't beat a woman of Dathyl." He wanted to know what was so special about the women of Dathyl.

"Must it always be this song?" A male voice asked from the doorway. Duo sat up, nervous that someone had gotten this close without setting off his internal alarms. The intruder was handsome, his hair was short and well kept, as rich a brown as Heero's, and though his eyes were shadowed they were a pleasing colour, but he had a face that would have been handsome if not for his scowl. He was tall and broad about the shoulders but narrow at the waist. He wore fine robes, well embroidered, and he carried himself well. He looked no older than forty, with very little grey at his temples, and the only wrinkles he had were from scowling and not from age.

"Who are you?" He asked, palming the knife he had stolen from the kitchen earlier. They had treated him and Heero as welcome guests but that didn't mean that this man might not attack him. Both Alister and Aeka had warned him of the Seraphim, and although this man was dressed like someone out of a samurai vid disk that didn't mean he wasn't one of these Seraphim.

The man rolled his eyes. "My name is Takehito no Mamoru Senshisha." He said in a formal stiff manner. "I am here for the one that calls themselves Shinigami."

"Why?" Duo asked.

"I bring greetings from my wife, the Lady of Meirin."

The word rang bells in Duo's head, the song spoke of Meirin, "And a lady in Meirin talks to the dead." "Why?" He asked.

"She extends an invitation to the one who calls themselves Shinigami as one lord of death to another, she wishes to meet with them for supper, she asks that they also bring with them the warrior who accompanied them. She said they would have questions and she is more than willing to provide answers." The man held a katana much like Wufei's and like Wufei he seemed more than deadly with it. In fact the man reminded him, not in appearance but in poise, of Heero when he was in mission mode. This man was a killer and he was ruthless, it did not settle Duo's nerves any.

"And what does she get out of it?" He asked. Duo had only heard that the Lady of Meirin talked to the dead and this man who protected her seemed more dangerous than anyone he had met in a long time with the possible exception of Heero.

"Peace." The man answered. "She has awaited the Shinigami for twenty years. I imagine it will calm her soul to know that they have come. My lady Shinigami no Minako Tennosha will meet with you in the yellow parlour at seven of the clock. Would the both of you require directions from here to there."

"Who are you?" Heero asked from behind the man, he had pulled his gun out of the trousers that they had dressed him in and held it to the man's back.

"I have just explained that to your companion, Shinigami," he looked at Duo, and in a remarkably fluid move turned around so that his sword was at Heero's throat. "I was inviting you both for supper with my lady at seven." He lowered the sword and sheathed it in a closing gesture. "I shall see you both then. I shall also have Dieina attire you in clothing more suited to meeting with the Darin ambassador. Good day," he bowed to Duo and ignored Heero walking past them.

"What the hell was that about?" Duo asked Heero.

"I'll be damned if I know." Heero answered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the song that Duo was singing, it's called the Women of Dathyl, and is a bawd. There is an alternative version which is actually quite rude. I just imagined of all the songs written for Dathyl the one Duo was most likely to sing, it would be this one.
> 
> The women of Tanis are bonny and gay  
>  And you can't trust a word a Sidin woman says  
>  And overall I'll take what I may,  
>  But you can't beat a woman of Dathyl
> 
> There's a woman in Danev who has eyes that are deep  
>  And a girl in Caelum who without me won't sleep  
>  And the women of Muchine well they play for keeps,  
>  But you can't beat a woman of Dathyl.
> 
> The women of Amitre have lovely eyes  
>  And the ladies of Zhentra are cunning and sly  
>  And the maids of javik, oh me oh my  
>  But you can't beat a woman of Dathyl
> 
> The women of romaine will tell you they can  
>  And there's a girl in Shiro who I think is a man  
>  And the women of Jiono carry beautiful fans  
>  but you can't beat a woman of Dathyl
> 
> The women of Amon mar well they are aloof  
>  And the Neyasuma girls only love youth  
>  And Hoshi Ji maids tell only the truth  
>  But you can't beat a woman of Dathyl
> 
> The women of Ioto are easily led  
>  And a lady in Meirin talks to the dead  
>  And this girl in Honeybourne you won't believe what she said  
>  but you can't beat a woman of Dathyl
> 
> The women of Atsan are a sight to see  
>  and the girls in Coresc, oh gosh golly gee  
>  and the ladies of Dramathen, well they charge a fee  
>  but you can't beat a woman of Dathyl
> 
> Kinmokusei girls are lovely and sweet  
>  And the Saida girls are the best you can meet  
>  And the girls of Cadarn have hair like buckwheat  
>  but you can't beat a woman of Dathyl
> 
> There's a woman in E'berta in whose eyes I could drown  
>  And the women of Medoc'Ne well they never frown  
>  and the hearts of Aviemore are a long way down  
>  but you can't beat a woman of Dathyl.
> 
> There's a woman in B'thesda who has lips that can shine  
>  and a girl in J'dan whose kisses are mine  
>  and the girls of Lavomer dress very fine  
>  but you can't beat a woman of Dathyl
> 
> the women of Nanao you should hear them sing  
>  and the girls of Muso could make you a king  
>  And the ladies of Jimpachi could teach you something  
>  but you can't beat a woman of Dathyl
> 
> The women of Okame have skin that can glimmer  
>  And the teeth of Tarin have a lovely shimmer  
>  And Meryem of Aran made me a sinner  
>  But you can't beat a woman of Dathyl
> 
> There's a girl in Orgoch whose words they are clear  
>  And the dresses of Minith are pleated and sheer  
>  And there's a maid in Kaga who holds me quite dear  
>  But you can't beat a woman of Dathyl
> 
> There's a woman in Erona who's up with the lark  
>  And another in Kitsune with a deep dark heart  
>  And a lady in Chichinyza as sharp as a dart  
>  But you can't beat a woman of Dathyl
> 
> The ladies of Parone are brilliant and new  
>  And the girls of Hinton are like pigeons who coo  
>  And the maidens of Babra say they won't but they do  
>  But you can't beat a woman of Dathyl
> 
> "the Dathyl maids have skin that is white;  
>  They bathe by day, and they bathe by night;  
>  Their laughter says they possibly might  
>  So you can't beat a woman of Dathyl
> 
> And the women of Ashton do prettily glow  
>  And the maidens of well street dance in the snow  
>  And there's a girl in Cinderton whom everyone knows  
>  So you can't beat a woman from Dathyl."


	4. Shinigami no Minako Tennosha

Duo stood in front of the floor length mirror and appraised himself trying to decide whether or not to get changed. He might have had a dinner date but the clothes were sturdy and clean and he wasn't sure what the maid that they had been sent had in mind. "Prima's very good, just trust her." The woman's voice said clearly behind him.

He whirled on his heel, "Heero," he shouted into the other room, "was that you?"

A soft hn, answered him from the privy that they shared.

"Silly," the woman chided, "it was me." She stood by the window, no taller than Duo himself with long honey blonde hair that she wore in a braid exactly like his own, with the same bangs over her face, but this girl was astonishingly beautiful. She wore a pair of leather trousers just like his own and a similar jerkin, but other than surface details this girl was nothing like him. She was heart stoppingly beautiful, beautiful like the first snows over Earth with deep dark eyes that seemed to drown him and a mouth that deserved to be kissed. "I just wanted you to pass on a message for me." Her laughter was like the tinkling of bells in the room. "I want you to tell Mina to tell him it's fine. I need you to tell Mina that Avili said to tell him that it was fine."

"So you're Avili." He asked warily.

She smiled and he felt dazzled. "Yes, Duo, I'm Avili, I'm Avili Angharad Verif if we're going to be specific, and you are Duo Maxwell." She walked over to him, and she didn't walk as much as glide, it was a soft almost tidal motion, she moved with a fluidity and silence that he actually envied. She wore soft leather slippers though where he wore heavy boots. "They are talking about you all over Halcyon, but please pass the message to Mina for me."

"Why can't you tell her yourself?" Duo asked.

"She can't hear me." Avili said and turned back to the window, "it's bitter out, it might snow, ask your Senshisha to join you tonight, or he will catch a chill." She smiled, "I don't think we'll see each other again, Duo, so you must give her my message, you must make sure she tells him I said it was fine."

"Why won't we see each other?" Duo pressed.

"The halls of Halcyon are crowded as it is, and this is not my place, I must go back there. Have strength, Duo," she ran her hand the length of her braid, "I believe in you."

He was distracted by the door to the privy opening and turned away from her, "who were you talking to?" Heero asked.

"Avili," he said turning to the window to introduce her, but she was gone. "She was here, just a minute ago, I swear she moves even quieter than me in stealth mode, and she snuck past me, twice." He shook his head, "that kir of theirs must be messing with my head."

Heero just hn'ed.

There was a knocking on the outer door, "excuse me," a girlish voice piped up as she popped her head around the door, "I'm Primaverra, Lady Minako sent me to help the Shinigami dress." She wore a black dress similar in design to the one that the chatelaine, Dieina, had worn, but over it she wore a pristine white apron, her hair was caught up in a cloth wimple but she had a winning smile and was apple cheeked. "She was going to send my sister, Otonna, but she had an attack of the nerves, the three of us used to tend to our Lady of Cadarn, miss Avili, but since," she paused for a moment, "well we serve Lady Minako now and with Hivara doing her hair it fell to me to come and help," she laid an outfit much like the one that the man who had interrupted them earlier had worn on the bed, "this will be for you, sir, and for the Shinigami." From behind it she laid out a long robe that fastened just under the breastbone then hung open to reveal the pleated trousers underneath. It was a style that would have been very flattering on a much taller person, the fabric was a pale ash grey on both outfits, and where Heero's looked like something out of a Japanese history text book there was something exotic and strange about Duo's. "Well, listen to me, just wittering on about nothing, would you care for some Kir, or some wine, there is some very fine brandy in the cellars, I could just run down and fetch it, or I can send for some hot chocolate."

"We're fine, thank you." Heero said lifting the outfit she had laid out for him, it was tied together and there was a sheet of very thin wood holding it in shape. "If you would like to start on the Shinigami I am more than happy to retire to the next room and dress." Duo got the distinct impression that Heero was laughing at him.

"Look at you," Primaverra said sitting Duo down to look at his hair, unbraiding it, before he had a chance to protest, with capable hands and then batting the brush against her palm, "why apart from those eyes if you're not the image of the Lady Avili, why Master Tobin will be beating down your doors thinking that she has returned to him, it is a good job you have your Senshisha, and him so handsome and all, maybe then Master Tobin will realise that you're not her and let you be, he can be so possessive. But he did love her." She started to brush out Duo's hair. The woman's chatter was strangely hypnotic, as she ran the brush through his hair and continued on, telling gossip about people he had never heard of, he just drifted away into her hands.

"You look lovely, Duo." Heero said when Primaverra stood back. Duo blinked for a moment hearing a compliment from Heero. Heero did not give compliments at all.

Duo did a double take in the mirror, the outer jacket of the outfit she had lain out for him was a very fine silk that was elegantly pleated to hide anything that it might otherwise show but the breeches were a heavy thick silk whose rustles sounded like sparks exploding. She had given him fine silk socks and leather slippers, and braided his hair tightly, much more tidily than he ever managed by himself, but it was only when he turned around he realised that she had braided a silver ribbon, a ribbon almost the same colour as his jacket, through his hair, and to it she had attached shining diamond clips. Looking at himself in the mirror he realised he was dressed like a girl.

"What time is it?" He grated.

"Nearly seven of the clock, I will take you to the yellow parlour, Lady Minako will be waiting, her time is precious, it is not good to leave her long." Primaverra said.

* * *

The yellow parlour lived exactly up to it's promise, the walls were covered in a pale yellow silk, the shutters over the windows had been painted a deep metallic bronze that matched the upholstery and all the fittings were golden. It was lush and rich, but very yellow.

The man, Mamoru, who had introduced himself before stood behind one of the small couches completely at alert, and on it sat a lady in an ash grey gown that was almost a perfect match for Duo's except where his made him look masculine, hers, somehow made her more feminine. "Good evening," she said, and Her voice was quietly deferential and her hair was a pale blonde that looked like spun lamplight in soft curls around her face and neck. Her gown was embroidered with silver thread in delicate starbursts. She didn't look like any of the other women, there was no hardness about her, but it was as if she was built of marble, she seemed permanent. She was, Duo noticed, the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She was almost arrogantly beautiful with the perfection of her features. She wore no jewels or cosmetics that he could see, but her hair and her eyes, that were the colour of granite, and her skin was the colour of wintry cream. "I am Shinigami no Minako Tennosha," she bowed her head, "and I have waited along time for you, Shinigami Duo Maxwell, and you Heero Yuy." She smiled but it was a brittle thing. Unlike many beautiful women who had grown out of their beauty she had grown into hers. There was a tension between Minako and the man who had introduced himself as her husband, it was almost uncomfortable. "Please," she said with another of those strange slow smiles, "take a seat, I imagine you have questions."

"Not really," Duo said, "You probably know our names because someone told you them, but this girl said to give you a message, she said to tell you that Avili said to tell him it was fine."

Minako started, a barely noticed almost gesture and then she smiled. "Thank you, Duo, I'll make sure to tell him, did she look well? It has been months since I've seen her."

"She looked great, she was really pretty," he answered, although he was uncomfortable with this woman, who was more than a little strange in his opinion, she was listening and if he kept the conversation light he could control it. Heero only listened, "her hair was as long as mine, and her eyes were really dark, she kept repeating the message though as if I was going to forget it, but I said I would and I may run and hide but I don't lie, so I was going to tell you it. She was the kind of girl a guy could fall for, if she didn't think he was an idiot."

Minako looked a little startled at the beginning of his monologue, and then relieved, and then she laughed. "You can't lie?" She asked.

"Well," Duo began, "I've never really tried, cause Sister Helen said it was the worst thing you could do, ya'know, and no matter how bad I got I could control something, ya'know. It stopped me feeling downright evil."

"I don't lie either." She answered. "What do you know of me?" She asked.

"That you're the Lady of Meirin," Heero answered.

"And the song said that there's a lady in Meirin who talks to the dead." Duo added, "but I don't go in for all that devil worship stuff, so if you're planning on using us as human sacrifices, lady, we don't go down easy."

There was a dull rumbling and it took Duo a moment to realise that the stiff soldier was laughing at him. "Mina," he said, "the girl is priceless."

"Girl?" Duo asked his voice going up an octave. "Girl, I'm no more girl than you."

"He's right," Minako said looking up at Mamoru with a faint smile that seemed somehow mocking. "He is male, they all say so."

"Who?" Heero asked.

"It's too early to explain." Minako answered, "Duo, you must tell me, did Avili say anything else?" Duo shook his head, "what was she wearing?"

"Leather pants and a jacket," he answered, "and there was a green ribbon in her hair, come to think of it," he cast his mind back, "and hoops," he touched his ear lobes, "here. Why?"

"Because I wanted to make sure," Minako answered, "sit down, Duo, this might come as a bit of a shock." Duo sat down but Heero stood beside him. "That's what Avili was wearing when she died, four months ago." Duo fainted.


	5. I don't understand

Duo came around slowly, he was lain across the couch and Heero was leaning over him, when he saw that he was awake he muttered, "baka," quite clearly.

"Don't be harsh on him," a woman said, "it's always a shock the first time if you don't know better." She leaned over him, "welcome back to the land of the living." She said with a smile, although the woman was beautiful there was something strangely hard about her smile, though it was genuine,

"Don't crowd him." A deep male voice, specifically said. "He's just had a shock and the last thing he needs is everyone leaning over him." He was suddenly lifted and a pillow placed under his back to bring him to an almost seated position. It was coming back to him, he had been called to meet the Lady Minako and her husband, and her name was Shinigami. They had been talking and she had asked him about Avili, and then said that Avili, was, he thought for a moment he was going to faint again. He'd had a conversation with a dead girl. Then again, his brain happily supplied, Minako could be lying, she said she didn't, but Duo didn't know that was true. It could be that she was setting him up, and that Avili hadn't vanished, she just was really good at stealth. "Are you feeling better?"

"Get away," Duo said pulling himself up into a seated position, using the pillow to support him when he wavered, almost fainting from the lack of blood at his head. "I'm fine now, ha ha, very funny, you made me faint."

The dark man offered him a cup of brandy which he sipped gratefully. "Mina can't lie." He said, "she is the Lady of Meirin, she can talk to the dead."

"Then prove it." Heero said crossing his arms across his chest, "tell me something only my dead would know."

Minako smiled and sat down on the facing couch before she crossed her arms, "fine, just remember that you asked for it. Your mother didn't want you to be called Heero, she says that the name had too many connotations, but he insisted. She really loves you." Heero looked unimpressed, anyone could have guessed that. "Afterall Heero Yuy was a hero to the colonies, but Odin was persuasive. He told you to follow your heart, to listen to your emotions but Dr," she paused, "J?" she guessed, "it sounds like J, he tried to train it out of you, but your mother used to lean over your bed when you slept and sing to you, sometimes you thought you saw her, but convinced yourself it was just a dream."

Heero was silent, if Dathyl was real she could not have known that, but if this was an elaborate Oz ruse any of this information could be researched. "She died when you were born, she was very ill, she loves you very much, and she's proud of you. She wants you to know that."

"None of this is remarkable." He answered.

She smiled again, "Mamoru was the same. He didn't believe in it at first. Your mother was very beautiful, I can see her in you, and your father though he's as quiet, you never knew them. Odin took you away when she died." There was no sadness in her voice, it was like she was recounting a favoured memory, "he used to make pies for you, the way she did for him." She smiled to herself, "sweet apple and rhubarb pies, and there would be leaves on the pastry, and they were always burnt around the edges." Heero gaped, there was no way she could know that, none.

"And you, Duo, Sister Helen is proud that you don't lie, but she's sorry that you can't hear her, and she says your hair is very pretty, and she's glad you use it to remember her." A single tear welled in Duo's eye as he clutched his braid. "And your mother, she was as effervescent as you, and laughed and laughed when you glued Wu Fey," she guessed again at the name, "to the seat of his," she paused, "I don't know the word, it sounds like gumdam."

"Gundam." Heero corrected stiffly.

"Why can't I?" Duo began, "why don't they appear to me?"

"You can't see your own dead, Duo." She answered quietly. "It's not our duty to give comfort to ourselves, but to the dead. I will teach you, just as I can't see Avili then you can't see your mother, though you must be the image of your father, apart from your eyes and your build no one would ever think you were related, and Father Maxwell whose proud that you learnt to read so well." She lowered her head. "They are always with us, the dead, in one way or another, soon Halcyon will seem over crowded, it is such an old place and so many things happened here. Or you might have cause to travel to Danev where the dead far outnumber the living. I will ask his imperial majesty in Dramathen if I can be excused to take you to Meirin."

"Why me?" Duo asked.

"You are Shinigami." She answered. "You were born to it. There are other factors, everyone you love dies, except the Senshisha, who will be your shield, it's hard to get close to anyone knowing that if they die you won't be able to know them." She sounded resigned and tired as she spoke. "There has always been a Lady of Meirin," she said, "we are descended from the Shinigami himself, and we carry his sorcery in our veins, and his burden"

"I'm not part of this." Duo shouted getting to his feet with his hands buried in his hair, "either I'm a demon conjured by Adam's mad experiments, or…" with no words left he left the room at a near sprint.

"Go after him, Heero." Minako said, "you are his Senshisha, only you can understand him."

"Senshi sha," he said as he went to leave, "means the dead soldier in my language."

"In ours," Mamoru said, "it means the guardian of death. Now go."

* * *

He found Duo sat with his legs over the crenellations of one of the outer walls facing out to sea, his legs hanging over the abyss below without a care in the world it seemed, but Heero knew better. Sometimes when they were on Earth Duo would stare at the sea like that and remember whatever dark memories he had and hope whatever dreams he called his own. "Bum deal, eh, Heero." He said, Heero knew he hadn't made a sound but Duo always heard him. "I mean what's the point of being able to talk to the dead if you can't see your own."

"You believe them?" Heero said sitting down next to him, Duo was shivering in the winter cold and Heero's body heat would warm him slightly, Duo was his partner and it would not do for him to be unwell. Things could not go according to plan if Duo was unable to function, even if the plan was postponed for the moment.

"I don't know." Duo answered. "I thought witch craft was all beheading chickens and dancing naked."

"Sounds like one of Quatre's barbecues." Heero said.

Duo looked at him, "if my ears did not deceive me the almighty Heero Yuy just made a joke." He smiled, "and a funny one." He knew why Heero had done it of course, to change the subject. "God, Heero, I just don't know. I mean I talk to this girl this afternoon and she sneaks in and out without me hearing her, I just thought it was the tea, ya'know, and then this woman knows shit she shouldn't possibly know, and tells me the girl I was speaking with is dead, and I don't know whether to believe her."

"Ask." Heero answered, "ask someone else if the girl is dead and what she looked like." It was an eminently practical and very Heero suggestion. "Cross check what she told you. she said I was your Senshisha, that I would protect you and offer you shelter."

"Maybe because I can't see your dead." He said. "I just wanna tell them I love 'em, ya'know, just that I didn't forget them and I'm trying."

"You don't need necromancy to tell them that, baka, if what she says is true they can hear you, it's just that you can't hear them." Duo looked at Heero, it was strange to receive any kind of acknowledgement of weakness from him, but for him to offer comfort as well.

"Father Maxwell used to tell this story," Duo began, "about this man who prayed everyday and was very devout and god never spoke to him but every day he carried on praying and did all the good things. Then one day he swore, he blasphemed, I don't remember why, but he broke a commandment and took God's name in vain and God answered him, and the man was so shocked he dropped down dead of a heart attack." Heero could tell where this was going. "That's kind of how I feel. I mean I prayed and I prayed and now God's answering me, but he's not my God, he's theirs." He looked out over the sea, it was icy cold now and his breath was making little clouds. "And, I don't know Heero, I just don't know."

"Come on." Heero said getting to his feet and offering Duo a hand to help him upright, "we can continue this inside before we both die of exposure, and we continue it over the roast goose that Rachel promised us and some wine, because we're old enough to drink here and we can talk and see if we can make sense of it all."

"For you are my staff and my shield." Duo muttered under his breath, and Heero pretended he hadn't heard him.


	6. The Cold of Dathyl

Duo woke to the persistent shaking on his shoulder, "g'way," he mumbled turning back into the warm pillow, the curtains around the bed had kept it quite snug and he was lovely, warm and comfortable piled underneath the mountain of covers and furs that were on the bed.

"Duo," a woman said very clearly, "Duo, you have to wake up."

"Snot morn'ng." He mumbled pulling the blankets up tighter about his neck.

"Duo," her voice was calm and gently chiding, "Duo, you have to wake up."

"Don' wanna." He protested.

"Duo." She repeated, "Duo, you have to wake up."

"G'way." He snarled.

"Duo Maxwell, get out of that bed this instant, or so help me, I'll." Duo sat up, simultaneously rubbing his eyes and yawning. The woman was unfamiliar to him, she was perched on the side of his bed, a feat that was worth mentioning as she had crept past Heero where he slept on the ottoman and then his defences. She had short wild dark hair and large almond shaped eyes that were a piercing and rather chilly blue, her mouth was a firm line and she wore a pair of overalls. He hadn't seen anyone in Dathyl that had worn anything like that. "You have to help him, Duo, you have to help him."

"Help who?" Duo snarled, "is little Timmy down the well, perhaps? Or maybe it's lassy who's been attacked by a killer kangaroo."

"No," the woman said, reaching out to affectionately brush Duo's bangs away from his face where they were sleep mussed. "It's Heero, he's dying."

Duo blinked repeatedly as his brain tried and failed to understand the message. "What?" he said.

"Heero's dying, it's the cold, he's asleep, he won't wake up. Help me, Duo, please, help me."

"Heero's sturdy, I'm not sure a little chill in the air is going to kill him." He stood up on the carpetted stair that surrounded the bed and tugged back the heavy velvet curtains. He took a swift intake of breath from his teeth, and it steamed in the chill air. The temperature in the room was brittle, the warming fire of the night before had long since burnt itself out and it was as if no one had stepped into the room in ten years the chill was that deep. "All right, maybe it's colder than I thought," he snapped at the woman with the amazing eyes, "what am I supposed to do? I can't light a fire." There was a halo around the moon where it hung high in the sky and the sky was the same crisp blue as the woman's eyes. "And it's far too late to find a servant to do it for me."

"Your bed is warm." She said, "put him in bed with you."

"Are you mad, lady?" Duo asked as he laid his hand on Heero's cheek, his breath was slow and uneven and his skin felt like stone. "Do you even have an idea what he'll do when he wakes up?"

"No," she answered, "you know who I am, please Duo, I can't help him, only you can, please, warm him through."

Rolling his eyes and suppressing a yawn Duo bent down and tried to shake Heero awake. There was no answer, he wasn't sure he expected one. With a muffled curse he picked the perfect soldier up, who was lighter than Duo expected, and carried him up to the bed, blankets and all. "If he kills me in the morning, lady, I am so chasing you down."

The woman smiled then reached across and moved Heero's bangs, he murmured under the pressure but didn't wake. Duo knew that if Heero hadn't been so out of it then he would have broken the woman's wrist for the presumption. One did not touch the perfect soldier except with his express permission in triplicate and signed in blood. "He won't kill you, Duo," her smile as she looked at Heero was remarkably fond, "I promise." Then she leant down and placed a kiss on the area of his forehead that she had cleared. "Thank you, Shinigami," she said and laid a kiss on Duo's palm in a gesture of genuflection. Then she was gone.

"If you're still here in the morning, Heero, I'm going to tell you about the bizarre-ass dream I just had, and then bawl you out for getting into bed with me." Pulling the blankets up so they covered both of them before reaching out to jerk the curtains shut again Duo lay back and thought about what had just happened. It had to be a dream, he thought rolling unto his side to face Heero. Heero was impervious to cold, wasn't he, and not likely to fall to hypothermia from a few hours in a freezing cold room with far too many draughts and snow on the way, was he? He reached out and touched Heero's arm, he was still chill to the touch.

"Well, buddy, if you wake up, you have to promise not to kill me for this." Duo took a deep breath before he crawled across Heero, straddling his thighs. "Some days I am so glad I had to listen to Howard teaching me to be a Sweeper." He said, he was talking so that if Heero did wake up he would know that this was not a threat and hopefully not kill him first and then ask questions later. "You see he lost a man to deep cold once, on a salvage ship, within an hour, and so he learnt everything there was to know about how cold kills." He spat on his hands and then started to rub Heero's arms roughly, forcing the circulation back into the clammy skin, "and how to stop it, you see what I'm doing, buddy, is trying to get the warmth deep within you back to the surface, it's easier with fluid, because, hell, for some things you need lubrication, ya'know, and as it is we're both gonna chafe somethin' awful." He spat into his hands again and began rubbing down the other arm. "If there were people about I'd get you into a hot bath to do this, but there aint, so I'm making do." He started on the chest which was barely rising and falling with Heero's breath, if he hadn't seen the steam outside the bed he would have been sure he was dead. He reached down and tugged off his sleeping breeches leaving him only in the underwear they had given him. "I'm pretty warm, hey, you used to whine that I was too hot all the time, and though I don't like to brag, I'm gonna be your hot water bottle, tonight," shimmying down Heero's body he began to rub hard at his legs through the fabric. "Sorry, buddy, but until I get a better offer you're sleeping with me."

* * *

Heero woke with a mostly naked Duo lying sprawled asleep across his chest and a strange stinging in most of his extremities. He did his best to process the information as it presented itself. He had banked the fire as best he could, not being used to such instruments, and then gone to sleep on the ottoman. The last thing he remembered was curling up because he was cold. He surmised he had gone to sleep.

He was definitely not on the ottoman, in fact he was in the down mattress bed that Duo had claimed the day before, and more disturbingly Duo was using him instead of the mattress. He was also snoring, and his knee was remarkably close to Heero's crotch and pressing against his bladder reminding him that they had had several bottles of wine and he desperately needed to relieve himself. Unable to think of anything to say, he mumbled "hn," in a bad temper.

"Sorry," Duo mumbled half asleep, then tumbled off Heero without a bye nor leave and curled up on the mattress beside him, clutching his arm and went back into the deep sleep he had had before.

"Baka." Heero murmured and slowly slid his arm out and then slipped across the bed to make his way to the privy. He opened the curtains to reveal it was still dark out, the curtains were heavy thick and dark so very little light was able to penetrate them. The servant girl, Primaverra, was laying out workings for a fire and she blushed when she saw him, and dropped a quick curtsey. Assessing his own body's instant rejection of the cold he pulled one of the furs off the bed and slipped his feet into the slippers on the step and made a very fast trip to the privy before deciding his best course of action was to get back into the warm bed and let the world go away until the room warmed up.

He slid back into the bed and Duo, still mostly asleep and probably not registering what he was doing curled up against him again. "Mary, Joseph and all the saints." Duo swore sitting up. "You're ice all over again, now lie down." He pressed his point with a hand to Heero's solar plexus and a naked leg thrown over his thigh. "Now go to sleep."

"Duo," he said, "why am I in your bed?"

"Too damn cold outside it, damn woman woke me up, said you were dying, cold as hell outside, brought you in, had to rub you down, didn't wake up, too stubborn to die." His voice was slurring as he slipped further and further into sleep.

"Who was the woman?" Heero asked, worried that someone had got past him.

"Your mum," Duo answered. "Looks just like you." Heero didn't ask any questions after that

* * *


	7. An Enamoured's wings

"My lords," Primaverra said opening the heavy curtains to the bed with a heavy jerk of her arm, then lifted a tray heavy with food and carried it up the two stairs to the bed where a sleepy Duo was blinking awake, Heero pulled himself into a seated position and took the tray from her. "Hmm," Duo mumbled through the fugue of sleep that was smothering him. "I can smell sausages." He smiled, pulling himself into a seated position, "and bacon and something else."

"Kir, master Duo," Primaverra said with a rather impish smile. "When you have finished breaking your fast, Milady Minako has requested your presence to accompany her into town, there are some items she was hoping to purchase. Master Heero, there is correspondence for you, if you cannot read simply advise me and I will have a scribe brought for you." Heero gaped for a moment, for two reasons, she had asked if he could read, and the other, someone had sent him a letter.

"Ooh," Duo said with a laugh around the fried bread he had rammed into his mouth, obviously to prevent Heero beating him to it, although Primaverra had brought plenty. "Someone has a sweetheart, we're in town one day and you get yourself a honey."

"Don't be a baka." Heero murmured, "and don't talk with your mouth full." Duo stuck his tongue, covered as it was with half masticated bread, out at him. Heero frowned at him, "so, Prima…" he tested out the abbreviation, he had heard everyone else call her Prima but wasn't sure if she would like him to call her that, she beamed at him, "can you bring me this missive and we can see from who it has come."

She pulled the letter from the pocket of her livery and handed it to him. It was sealed with a lump of golden wax impressed with a pair of open wings. "Hn," he said recognising the sigil, it was the same image that the Seraphim had tattooed on their bodies, the same image he had on his own back.

Sliding a fingernail under the wax he opened the letter as Duo poured them cups of kir. "Its from someone called Matherion."

Prima's eyes opened in shock. "He's the Duke of Jacurutu." She whispered in shock, "He's the Seraphim Lord. All the Seraphim bow down to him."

"What's he say?" Duo asked.

"He wants to talk to me." Heero answered reading the tiny script, it read like old Japanese which shocked him. "He's calling me Enamoured." Duo grunted, he didn't like that. "It's a trainee." He said. "That's what they call the Seraphim in training."

"And why are you calling you that?" Duo asked with his arms crossed over his chest and his eyebrows brought into a tight line.

Heero noticed his reaction but didn't say anything, he pushed the tray solely unto Duo's lap and turned on his side, showing both Duo and Primaverra the tattoo on his back. "I've had that all my life." Heero said, "they have it too. These are, apparently, Enamoured wings. That is why he calls me Enamoured."

Duo ran his fingertips over the outstretched wings. "Wow," he murmured, "and I wasn't allowed to pierce my ears in case they became an identifying feature and you had ink done."

"I don't know when or why," Heero answered, rolling back to his back.

"Well," Primaverra said, "you have to tell the Lady Minako, she can get Lord Alister to leave you alone. The Seraphim are bad news. You don't want to get involved with them, sir, they kill their own, and they cut out the hearts of women that cross them and claim them witches. They're really bad news, sir, and they want to kill Lady Minako real bad."

Heero registered it and then screwed up the letter. "I have no time for people that don't even learn my name."

That seemed to relax Duo somewhat but his body language was still tense which Duo didn't understand.

"Well, pardon my presumption, but master Heero, the Seraphim would ask you to take Master Duo into L'Plaza dell Aguo to strap him to the great stone and use their greave to cut out his heart and chop off his head." She was aghast and her hand played at the hollow of her throat, "and then they keep his heart in a jar because they say it will bring him back from the dead."

"I'm sure that's just propaganda." Duo said.

"No," Heero said, "it's carved unto their doors."

Duo went pale. Primaverra nodded. He pushed the tray away. "I think I've lost my appetite." Then something occurred to him and he turned to Heero, "and the only reason you don't want to associate with them is because they don't use your name?" He asked.

Heero looked at him for a long minute before he burst out laughing.

* * *

If Halcyon was the heart of Dathyl then Well Street was it's main artery, it was the street that ran the length of the city, and because in places it was so steep it had steps in place of pavements, from it branched every street to every banlieue, from the opera house and the university to the docks and the brothels. Well Street was the barrier between the wealthier parts of town and the slums, as it was the only street that led through the city walls, beyond it the houses were built of stone, rather than wood and plaster, and the streets were swept. On one side of the wall, past the gate the houses were palaces, although much smaller than Halcyon which was easily as large again as the city, through the second wall the houses were large and well appointed, past the third they were wooden and packed together. "This is Cinderton." Minako said noticing Duo's stare as they reached the bottom of the hill, Heero and the Senshisha, Mamoru, trailed behind them, "and no where makes gowns like Lucia of Cinderton. I thought we could start there and work our way up the hill, and possibly catch "_Menelaus and Onestra_" at the opera house. Tobin's going to sing and that really is something to see, a case of if there is only one thing you ever do in Dathyl it's watching Tobin sing."

"Is she good?" Duo asked, but he really wasn't paying attention.

"Duo," she answered, "Onestra was the most beautiful woman in the world who damned nations with her pride and saw the last dragon slain, you have to come with me."

"If it's such a spectacle how can you guarantee tickets?" Duo asked, looking for some way out of it, he really didn't do opera on the whole.

She laughed, it was a sparkling soft sound, like light falling on moving water, "I am the lady of Meirin and the Darin ambassador to the King, I can get tickets."

A tall men in a red cloak pressed past him, just trying to get on his way, past Duo, but his hand touching Duo's bare skin.

The vision left him gasping.

_She came to him in the catacombs under the cellars of his castle, cellars he wasn't aware were even there. He had awoken at night, flung the covers from him with no care as to whether or not his wife was even in the bed, and stood up. He didn't bother to dress; he just stood up and began to walk. He walked through sitting rooms, down to the cellars, and then he pushed a brick to reveal a passage he was unaware of, entering the old passages his father's family had used to escape when under siege. He walked bare foot and naked through the long winding passages with the cold damp air against his skin till he came to the room with the fire where she waited. At first he thought she was a gift from the conspirators, or a lady of their cause sent to convince him. Then he thought she might be a royal spy sent to get him to confess and then kill him. She was a noble woman with dark blonde hair she wore loose down her back and a heavy red velvet dress embroidered with gold at the hem. Then the soldiers came out of hiding, two of them with thick curly beards with black jackets and grey culottes trimmed in the red of her gown, and they fixed him with rope to the rings he had not seen in the wall. He would know who she was, later._

_They began with a flail with strands of wire hanging loose from it, and day fell into day in the lamplight whilst she watched. He was aware of the passage of time only when the soldiers changed, and through it all she watched idly, as if it bored her. When they drove an iron into the fire till it glowed red as the velvet of her gown and pressed it against the small of his back, she spoke to a man in grey hakama. He was beardless. As day fell into day he didn't scream, he prayed._

_When they poured hot vinegar into the open grazes left by the flail he prayed. "Where I am too weak to walk, my god carries me." When they poured hot oil into his nose, eyes and down his throat, he prayed. "Where I am not strong enough to be beloved, my god loves me." When they poured molten wax in his ears and deafened him he prayed. "Where I fail to believe." When they cut the skin from his fingertips and seared the flesh sealed, he prayed. "My." When they pushed needles into his muscles over and over he prayed. "God." When they ripped off his fingernails he prayed. "Believes." When they fettered him he prayed. "In." When they set alight to all the hair on his body he prayed. "Me." And when she stood up waving away the guards, he prayed._

_She touched the places where they hurt him and kissed the places where they cut him until he was caught between begging her not to stop and crushing her skull between his palms. She laughed, and let him drop to the floor like a marionette with its strings cut before her. Then she thrust out her foot and told him to kiss her hem. He lifted the fabric, feeling its luxuriant weight and the rough gold thread because he could not longer see it. He kissed it with his broken lips again and again and again. She told him to strike her. He did not, and the pain bent him double and he spewed blood all across the tight flags of the floor and she laughed and laughed and laughed. "When you intend violence against me or my Garvem I will know and this will be your fate. When you fail to do my bidding I will know and this will be your fate." Then she bent down and helped him to his feet and she gave him back his hearing, and his sense of taste, and his sight and all the other things she had stolen from him. The scars across his body were gone, and she smiled as she kissed him on the forehead with her large wide mouth. Then his training began._

Duo blinked as his legs went from under him, Minako and her husband the austere Senshisha caught him before he hit the ground. His eye were wide and his breath came in little pants. Heero swept in and picked him up, putting Duo's arms around his neck and with one arm around his waist and under his thighs. "I'm here." He murmured.

"That poor man." Duo whimpered, burying his face into Heero's neck, "that poor, poor man."

"What is this?" Heero asked as Duo quivered and whimpered in his arms.

"A death vision." Mamoru answered, "We're near the Scarlet Arches," he said, "We can let him rest there."

"Hee-chan," Duo murmured, he had never called him that before. "Help him." He looked after the red cloaked man as he moved through the crowd.

"That's Malchia D'Eschane." Mamoru said as he watched the man go. "Don't. He deserves nothing. There is not a man in Dathyl that wouldn't kill him where he stands, then spit on his corpse."

"I wouldn't piss on him if he was on fire." Minako said and Heero noticed it, but said nothing.

* * *

In the banlieue of Cinderton Dathyl housed the most famous brothel in the known world, a building which from the outside resembled a warehouse that was known only as "The Scarlet Arches", funded by a secret patron and engaging only the best and most beautiful courtesans, the Scarlet Arches was the reason many travellers came to Dathyl. It was said that lords had whiled away their fortunes in the arms of one of the ladies there, and that the pleasures there were equalled only in the mythical arms of a naiad.

The Scarlet Arches was the best renowned brothel in the known world, it was said that it would cost no less than a year's wages to just eat inside its walls, the girls were the most beautiful in the world and the man who upholstered its chairs was as famous for his stories of its wealth as he was for his work. In truth it was not the palace it was rumoured to be, just a converted warehouse in the jewellery district of Dathyl, lushly decorated and full of the most expensive whores in Dathyl, Darie, Zhentra and Aran. To protect his investment the Earl of Medoc'Ne, who owned the brothel, had hired Brisen, a former whore from Saida as enforcer and nothing happened within its walls that was without her consent. She didn't look dangerous, just an ageing prostitute but she was the best enforcer money could buy.

Dathyl was a city of slums and spires, of nobles and beggars, of parks and cemeteries and all of the world people talked of two wonders, the Halcyon palace and the Scarlet Arches Chamber. It was an old building that had the look of a warehouse about it, but inside fortunes were traded for one night in the perfumed arms of the highest level of courtesan in Dathyl, Brisen's girls.

The girls were lounging on chaise littered around a wide foyer and were dressed, like Brisen, in a short tunic held in place with cord, each of them was beautiful and exotic, some with skin the colour of honey, some the colour of copper, and some with skin so dark it looked like it had been burnt. Some had long hair, some had short, some were thin, some fat, everything a man could desire was provided here. In Darié women controlled the consumption of the pleasures, they ruled the Okiyas and the prostitutes of the street, they controlled the alcohol and the opium and iocaine. The Scarlet Arches denied all that in that it was created only to please. Anything that pleased you could be bought here, for a price.

Barging past the prostitutes as they went to gather around him Heero laid out Duo on the small couch. "He's so pretty," a girl with blue hair murmured.

"She looks like Miss Avili," another whispered back. "Is Tobin here?"

"This early?" The one with the blue hair whispered, "if he is it's because he's not gone home yet." They laughed.

"Brisen!" Mamoru shouted, "Some brandy, it's an emergency."

The woman came forward carrying a tray. "You bring me such pretty boys, Tennosha," the woman said, her voice was low and throaty. She poured out a beaker of the steaming hot brandy. "And no one can ever cope properly with the Dathyl winter." She had no intention of pressing further than that.

Duo was pressed against Heero and sobbing hard, what he had seen, something no one else had, had almost shattered him, this boy who had seen worlds destroyed had seen something so terrible all he could do was weep.


	8. Onestra and Menelaus

The opera house of Dathyl was a lot less impressive than Duo imagined, it was certainly less fine than the Scarlet Arches. He thought that the pall curtains would be fabulous as he was sure that they should have been, and the stage was smaller, the chairs were soiled and the lights full of old wax. But he allowed Primaverra with her clucking and soft hands to dress him as a nobel, fixing his long honey blonde braid up under a cap. Tonight has the sense of finality, Duo thought as he looked around at the throng that had gathered for the performance. Mina was sat with Alister in the box, Heero and Mamoru sat behind them Duo was sure that he didn't care for opera. Tonight would be a triumph, Duo had been told, not because the queen was attending, or any of the other reasons but because the Tobin that they had heard so much about had would never perform again..

It was customary in the opera for the fashionable people to arrive between acts two and three but the house was already packed for one reason or another and the ballet corps were unused to performing for more than a hundred people found themselves dancing to over a thousand, but they moved beautifully back and forth, stretching, leaping and gliding. "They are quite good," Alister said grudgingly to Minako where she sat beside him, "a pity this is business."

"Alister," Aeka chided behind him through her heavy black veil, "stop worrying about your investment and for once enjoy the show."

"Yes, your majesty."

"Mina," Duo said turning to where Minako sat in the box, on a chair that meant she could see over their heads, "can I get some sweets please? I brought some money."

Alister and the queen looked at him with cold shock, it was clear that the prospect of him wandering around Dathyl at night, alone, brought them both to a cold sweat. "It's okay, your highness," Heero said from the far edge of the box, from where he stood watching over them. "I thought you might like some sweets so I bought some on the way in." He lifted the dainty box from the floor by his feet and passed them to Minako to pass along, "you are a bottomless stomach, aren't you?"

"The whole city is afire with word of this Tobin," Duo said popping one of the candies in his mouth, it was desiccated coconut dipped in a hard shell, it was unusual but not unpleasant. "When will he come on stage?"

"Not for a while yet," Alister answered leaning back over both Minako and Aeka to answer him, "I'll point him out."

"Something like that," Alister replied, "now what happens is that the person playing Selestin, the Pariako lord, will come out sing something like who will rid me of this troublesome peasant girl."

"That's not what he says," Minako protested as the dancers cleared the stage. "Look there he is now."

The curtain lifted to reveal a broken tower painted on the canvas at the rear, with large black birds circling, the actor playing Selestin stood centre stage, elaborate in his Paraiko armour, the wooden feathers like a bird's, clattering as he took his place and waving his shining sword began to sing.  
_In the dark, a hollow laugh reaches me  
__I alone wander about in the deep forest  
__A dying hope and withered flowers.  
__The whirling flames that drive me mad_

_I'm veiled in the black moon, I sense nothing at all  
__Tear up my body and take me away to the depths of the sea_  
"What's he talking about?" Duo asked, leaning in to ask Alister as Selestin continued to sing on the stage.

"I have no idea." Alister whispered back, "I'll tell you when I figure it out."

"Shush," Aeka muttered from behind them, "I know neither of you want to be here, so quiet."

"Yes, your majesty." They replied together.

"He's talking about how his people are dying," Minako whispered back, "and that there is no hope for him, that he'll die too, that the fates conspire against him."

"Thank you. Is that Alister's brother, Tobin?" Duo whispered back.

"No." Minako replied, "I'll point him out when he comes on stage."

Selestin removed his helmet and raised one leg on the wooden scenery which was supposed to be a wall, possibly, or a tree stump, behind him pulling his painted wooden sword from it's sheathe and waving it aloft. Behind him as he sang on and on, in Alister's opinion, about the portents of the black moon and his inevitable death, a death Alister was glad to offer at a reasonable rate if he didn't shut up, Onestra took the stage, hiding her face behind a delicate white lacquer fan. "That's Tobin." He whispered to Duo.

"Liar." he replied as Tobin mocked a stumble so that Selestin dropped his sword to catch him and he began to sing.

_Not my lord, not a lady am I, nor yet a beauty,  
_   
_And I do not need an arm to help me on my way._

On cue Onestra shirked the arm of Selestin with a nasty shrug and went to continue but Selestin, again, burst into song, continuing with the black moon song. Alister rolled his eyes and muttered "Mattaku."

_I'm veiled in the black moon  
_   
_to the another world of my memory  
_   
_I vacantly see your image in my mind's eye  
_   
_The vision of you beckons me to the faraway sea_

The queen's fan caught him hard on the back of the head, "shush." She whispered, "Tobin's going to sing."

Onestra had tapped the Paraiko lord hard on the arm with her lacquered fan and pushed him away, swishing her skirts like a coquette and the queen laughed at him, he had obviously been watching the ladies of the court in the time he had been there, as he lifted the hem of his gown to show a small white shoe.

_Not my lord, not a lady am I, nor yet a beauty,  
_   
_And I do not need an arm to help me on my way._

"If he sings that Black moon song again," Alister growled.

"It's a running theme, it's called Selestin's song." Talia chided hitting him on the knee with a fan she pulled from the waistband of her gown, "get used to it, he sings it all the way through."

Selestin turned to Onestra, pulling her back by the very fan she had struck him with. She turned to face him her eyes dark and sparkling, she was the most beautiful girl in the world and she looked at him.

_Would she but deign to hear me  
_   
_And with one smile to cheer me_

"She is milking you." Alister growled as he watched the Paraiko lord fawning over Onestra, although they were a long way from the stage everything they did was clear.

"Shush." The queen hushed him, hitting him on the head with her fan, Duo smirked with his lips sticky with the sweets Heero had given him.

Onestra looked at Selestin with a dark and sinister gaze that it wasn't hard to take as disgust as she tried to wrench away her fan at the same time that she drove at least three rows of the audience wild with a glimpse of her shoe. Then she opened her mouth to sing

_Not my lord, not a lady am I, nor yet a beauty,  
_   
_And I do not need an arm to help me on my way._

Her protestations, which were Alister noticed the same two lines again and again, were not swaying the Paraiko lord who, judging by the change in tone of the music the orchestra played, was about to burst into song, another one, Alister hoped, rather than the opening number which he was already annoyed with.

_Touched by your eyes across the room,  
_   
_A smile that brightens my soul.  
_   
_Never has this weakness come over me  
_   
_It is as if like a moth drawn to a flame,  
_   
_I would wither in ecstasy of your presence,  
_   
_Rather than continue alone.  
_   
_I do not know what could make me happier.  
_   
_Never have I known pure joy.  
_   
_To revel in the beauty of your sights,  
_   
_Breathing your breath,  
_   
_Touching your hand,_

Alister thought that with the full remonstration of Selestin's love for a girl who passed him in the street that he might vomit, however to her credit, Onestra was having none of it. She was a proud girl, beautiful and she would not be owned.

_I can't go forward if I feel like this  
_   
_Because the regrets of yesterday stop me  
_   
_Going around and around a maze that I can't get out  
_   
_Even if there's no exit I'll break out_

Alister wanted to hug the girl, but Selestin's face was set, Alister wasn't sure why people at the opera had to gurn, but he thought it might be so that people at the back of the house could see their expressions, either that or they couldn't act. But Selestin had Onestra by the arm and with his wooden armour clacking to the beat of a Darin drum he led her off the stage and then back on up the flight of stairs and opened a concealed door through which he pushed her. He leant across to Minako, "if she starts singing about being locked in a tower, I'm leaving." Minako laughed and patted him on the knee. But Onestra did not sing about being locked in a tower, but he watched as Selestin took a bag of paste jewels to her parents, notable by a long song about the joys of working and having a beautiful daughter, and threw the at them to pay for the daughter he kidnapped, then the curtains closed.

"Is that it over?" Duo asked hopefully.

"No, that's the first scene." Minako answered and Alister groaned.

"He really is magnificent," Duo muttered, "I never expected it."

"I don't think I can stomach more of the bird man." Alister muttered, "if he starts whinging about the black moon again I'm going to get some fruit to throw," the whole crowd was muttering and the orchestra was trying things, but then they went silent as a hint to the crowd as the curtains opened again to reveal Amanitas, the home of Aeka and Menelaus. Menelaus was having some kind of tourney with his wife sat in the stalls with another Paraiko, though this one's feather armour was painted green, but Alister suspected it was just Selestin again in a different colour. There was a mock battle to show Menelaus off in a good light and then Aeka stepped down from her throne to wrap her arms about her husband's waist then she began to sing.

_I love you  
_   
_After the storm the blue skies are sure to unfurl  
_   
_My darling heart  
_   
_I'll deny this sadness  
_   
_And keep you close, touching your hair_

When she turned Alister noticed the feather design on her back, like the armour the Paraiko wore, grudgingly he admitted that there was something here, on the other side of the stage Selestin had come back on stage leading Onestra by a chain unto the stage, singing counterpoint to Aeka,

_I love you  
_   
_I believe your denial is probably a scream of love  
_   
_My darling heart  
_   
_We are far away though we can both see the stars of the night sky_

Then Menelaus and Onestra began to sing together, the first time of what promised to be a lot of duets in denial of their Paraiko lovers.

_Though the wind is transparent, the current brings life  
_   
_Trees grow into a forest, and people hand down love  
_   
_Needing one another, and giving one another  
_   
_Life has the end, that is why it is sweet  
_   
_Please remember..._

But they were deaf to their mortal lovers and continued to sing their protestations of love whilst their mortal concubines denied that love, which Alister knew was wrong because Aeka had been mortal in the Akheniad and Menelaus had loved her. Then Aeka led Menelaus off stage left. Whilst Selestin, of the black moon song, sang to Onestra about loving her and pleasing her.

_It is deep place of your heart where the tears are born  
_   
_where answer is asleep  
_   
_Lights and shadows are in your same heart  
_   
_wait for your next choice_

Onestra brought herself to her feet despite the leash around her throat, throwing back her shining black curls with a show of pride and said the only spoken line of the entire opera. _"Bring me the head of the dragon in the gorge by the bay." _The curtain swished shut.

"Well that was a bit hurried," Duo murmured, "it was all mock battle."

"I don't know," Alister replied, "that was the first bit I liked."

"You should like the next bit then," Mina said in a firm manner, "there's a dragon in it."

"The last opera I saw with a dragon in it," Alister began as they orchestra made a normal cacophony in the pit, "was a lizard on a leash."

"Give Tonio some credit," Minako replied as the orchestra fell quiet, "they couldn't afford a lizard." The curtains opened to reveal a painted gorge with a sunset above and a few lonely pines, at the bottom were piles of painted bones and armour.

Then there was a whoosh of flame on the stage and the audience gasped. "Wow," Alister said aloud, "how did they do that?"

"I'll tell you later," Mamoru replied, "now be quiet, and you'll see what we do when we can't afford a dragon." There was a second jet of flame and about four men wearing a green coverlet walked on stage, they had obviously prepared for it because they walked in synch one up when one was down to gave a serpentine appearance to the dragon. It did however not look very good.

"A lizard would have looked better," Alister whispered.

"But a lizard can't breathe fire." The queen said leaning down Duo had, despite the noise, gone to sleep on Alister's shoulder.

"If it sings…" Alister said.

"I know," Talia answered, "you're leaving."

A few knights in answer to Onestra's challenge had come on stage and were mockfighting the dragon, and it was kicking, because it had no arms, with wooden claws on it's feet, the knights had the good graces to not sing just to make ooh and ahh noises and die loudly, then the dragon leant down on the last knight it had slain and with it's jaws, or an arm through the jaw Alister suspected, pulled a few lengths of red cloth from his jumper, and the curtain closed again.

"I liked that bit," Alister said, "no one sang."

"If no one sang," Minako said firmly smacking him hard on the hand with her fan, "then it wouldn't be opera, it would be theatre."

"They'd act better in theatre." Alister replied, then the curtain opened to reveal Onestra alone in atop her tower and Danan stood up holding The Submarine Cathedral as they prepared, alone, to play.

_You look just like the moon  
_   
_getting thinner for the bitterness and the pain._

On the other side of the stage, raised slightly but not as high as where Onestra stood Menelaus stood in full armour with his Paraiko wife, Aeka and for the first time the famous tenor sang alone.

_Before the new day comes,  
_   
_let's wash away the lump in your throat.  
_   
_I can't be you for him though,  
_   
_at least, I'd like to weep with you._

He embraced her though he was singing the same song as Onestra, which Alister thought boded badly, he kept expecting Selestin to come back on stage singing about the dreaded black moon. Onestra took up the refrain, her voice deftly matched to Danan's playing and Alister was willing to admit the boy was very talented, but that tune had become more familiar, and together Onestra and Menelaus sang.

_In the dark, a hollow laugh reaches me  
_   
_I alone wander about in the deep forest  
_   
_A dying hope and withered flowers.  
_   
_The whirling flames that drive me mad  
_   
_I'm veiled in the black moon, I sense nothing at all  
_   
_Tear up my body and take me away to the depths of the sea_

"The black moon song." Alister snarled, "it's that bloody black moon song."

Aeka kissed him silent, holding his face between her hands and he sang to her.

_Lover, stay with me always in my heart  
_   
_The journey that goes with the wish but  
_   
_Hold me! hold me! this world is nothing  
_   
_Compared to anyone or anything, just the two of us  
_   
_Compared to anyone or anything, just the two of us_

More than anything Alister wanted to shout out, go and let the cloth dragon kill you already. He had been watching this thing for the best part of an hour and Onestra and Menelaus hadn't even met yet. The curtains closed again and Alister breathed a sigh of relief as the audience exploded with applause for the young violinist who had played those parts on his own. He clapped with them because Danan deserved the applause, he had played wonderfully. Then the curtain opened again to reveal the gorge again and Menelaus wearing a very heavy looking helmet mocked parries with the dragon and then killed it, it was hurried and looked very false. Then he cut off it's wooden head and held it aloft and Alister waited patiently for a verse of "I killed the dragon," but it was not forthcoming, though Menelaus did burst into song.

_In an unending, brawling battle, bleed valour!  
_   
_Help the weak until you gain a victory for peace  
_   
_In a brawling battle let the sparks fly!  
_   
_Make it through the sunny days,  
_   
_the rainy days, and the hard days, fly again_

That went on for some time and Alister wished for the headless dead dragon at his feet to silence him, he had a good voice, but Alister was sure he did not care for opera and stopped paying attention scanning the crowd to see if anything interesting was happening, the Lady of Meirin and her husband were sat as still as statues, and it looked like Grace who had arranged this hadn't managed to get away, and Terenz was still off somewhere, Adam was sat alone in his box, the one he was meant to share with Grace, writing, and people were getting up in the aisles down below. It seemed that Alister was not the only one to be bored by this performance. Menelaus went to walk off stage and climbed unto the dais as Onestra appeared at her tower room, all the fidgeting stopped. Holding up the head Menelaus began to sing.

_The playing of a reed flute carries in the wind  
_   
_Crossing the sea of wheat  
_   
_The day that two beats meet  
_   
_Was the destiny of last night_

Onestra to her credit ignored his pitiful wooing but he continued to woo her, and she continued to ignore him, weighing up her jewels in her hand to check their sparkle, he really has been paying attention, Alister thought to himself, he could be my wife.

_Nobody can hinder already  
_   
_Accept my kiss  
_   
_I want to see just our love more  
_   
_Before the day breaks_

It still wasn't working, she was still more interested in her jewellery and ignoring the knight at the base of her tower bringing her devotions of love and the head of the dragon from the gorge by the bay. Then for whatever reason, perhaps an off-stage hint from the composer Onestra saw him for the first time.

_Like a halved seashell becoming one_  
We'll softly snuggle together  
Remembering the first time we met  
It's a red thread that sees through an insinuating look...  
I was born to fall in love with you  
No matter how the winds of fate violently blow  
  
_I want to be protected by you_

"Stop this!" The shout echoed from the back of the hall and every head turned to see a full contingent of twenty Seraphim and Alister was half out of his chair before Tobin stumbled halfway through his note at the interruption, and Matt D'Karioni continued. "I have word that foul demons have been summoned from the aether and that in my role as Seraphim Lord it is my place to sacrifice them for the glory of the Goddess." Alister sighed and rolled his eyes.

Tobin had not moved from the stage but still stood on the dais but Alister could see his breath heaving in his chest like he was about to be sick. Then he began to move, and Alister turned his head to see the Seraphim to see if he could see why.

"Who do I think I am?" Tobin asked him loudly, it was obvious that he was making this loud enough for everyone to hear, but Alister didn't understand his motives. "Do you think I did this," he was referring to the spoiled performance, "because I wanted to forget her. I want it known for the record," He took a deep breath, Alister could see it swell against his gown, and he was still dressed as Onestra in the shining white frock with jewels in her hair and a beautiful necklet, "I have no use for god nor women. So when the demons come to take my soul I will push aside the Seraphim lest they protect me like they protect my wife." He spat on the floor at their feet. "Will you cross me, Matt? Knowing what I know, being who I am?"

Alister shrugged Minako's hand on his knee and left the box at a near run, taking the steps two at a time until he reached the main auditorium where the Seraphim had invaded, Tobin amongst them like a lily in thorns shouting at the Lord of the Seraphim in a dangerous fashion with the greave hanging beneath his arm and glinting in the lamp light, when Alister threw open the door he expected to find Tobin eviscerated and the pristine white gown ruined with blood, but to his surprise Matt had not reacted against Tobin in the moments it took him to leave the box and enter the auditorium. "The boys are under royal protection at the moment, my lord of Jacurutu." Alister said moving like a juggernaut amongst the armed Seraphim, a think no lesser lord would have dared to do, the Seraphim did not obey the law or fear it.

"Of course, secretary." Matt smiled, "if they are boys then they cannot be witches, but if they proved to be demons I trust that you will relinquish them to my command for testing."

"That is the law." Alister said lowering his head, "but they are boys, travellers by their own admission, not demons."

"The girl has visions." The Seraphim lord countered, looking up at the box, but not at Duo where he rubbed his eyes sleepily, but at Heero stood behind him. "She will need to be tested."

Alister laughed. "They're both boys," he answered calmly, "both of them, check with Brisen in the Scarlet Arches," he said, "they bathed there this afternoon, and under the protection of the Queen and the Darin ambassador."

"Women," Matherion D'Karioni said firmly, "I have no use for god nor women, Tobin?" He asked with a light laugh, "did you truly lose so much?" Then in a swirl of his white cloak he turned and walked away and his seraphim turned and followed him.


	9. Primadonna, first lady of opera

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part 9

Part 9

* * *

Minako looked at the look of horror on Duo's face as the scene on the floor of the opera house unfolded. Where Duo looked horrified Heero had slipped into the same battle stance as Mamoru. "It's nothing to do with us." She said, putting her hand on Duo's shoulder, "and it's nothing to do with you. It's all the shifting of Dathyl politics, this was for Tobin and for Alister, we were just the excuse. They won't move against us."

"The Seraphim just like to show off." Aeka said behind them, standing up and smoothing out the lines of her velvet gown. "Ignore them, for the most part they are just a pain. Matherion wants a war, and we won't give him one, so he does stunts like this to rally support for their cause."

"We might as well go." Mamoru said, his hand still tight around the hilt of his sword. "Tobin will not finish the show now."

"Your name." Heero said, "is the same as the one in the opera."

"Of course," Aeka answered with a winning smile, her red hair falling around her face in an appealing manner which served to hide the red over and below of the strip of velvet around her throat. "I was named for the character in the story because she was brave and strong, and she was added to the opera when I came to Dathyl. Do you want to go backstage?"

"Are you sure that we can, Heika?" Despite Aeka's demands to the contrary Heero insisted on calling her by title.

"I can do what I like in this country." She answered with a wink. "And besides Tobin and I are old friends, and as prima donna he pretty much gets his own way. We'll just wait for Alister."

Duo suspected that this was a salve for his tattered nerves and reached out and took Heero by the hand, Heero jumped a little, alerting Mamoru to the gesture, but then gripped his fingers just as tight. Mamoru smiled a little and gestured with his head to Minako. She smiled just as warmly as he did, but neither Heero or Duo saw it. "He can meet us down there." Minako said standing. "The Seraphim won't make a move now, come on, before our darling Tobin wanders off and we won't get backstage."

Aeka laughed, it was a bright peal of a noise. "It takes longer than that to get out of those dresses."

"I'm learning that." Duo murmured, "Prima keeps dressing me like a girl."

Heero stood up and pulled Duo to his feet. "Baka," he murmured but Minako suspected that when he said it he was actually saying something else. Mamoru had obviously noticed it as well, but it wasn't in her husband's nature to mention something like that, especially to her. Mamoru never spoke of love to her. In twenty years of marriage he had never spoken of love to her. In her heart she gave a small and brief prayer that Duo was happier with her Senshisha than she was with hers. To Duo though, she said nothing.

Aeka noticed the look of pain that flashed across Minako's face, and squeezed her hand with a smile. Duo didn't notice that either. Heero however did, and jerked his hand away, ramming it into the pocket of the jacket he wore.

The back of the opera house was a maze that they were ushered into with a minimum of fuss and a small contingent of guards, even though they were all here incognito just to watch the show. People bustled about carrying large screens and back drops, a man carrying a violin dropped a quick curtsey before he continued screaming obscenities at a ballet dancer who had obviously missed her cue.

"Mina," the prima donna said gliding forward, he had stripped out of Onestra's elaborate white gown and his black hair was short and slicked back with sweat, he wore a white wool sweater and a pair of tight black leather trousers. He was a very attractive man, Heero noticed, apart from a pair of acid green eyes that weighed him up and a thin scar that crossed his face. "Aeka, my twin stars, did you see me, I would have been a..." He stopped as he noticed something. Duo was turned away from him, watching some of the ballet girls bicker over a dress that they both seemed to think was there. "Avili?" The man asked, pushing past them and putting his hand on Duo's shoulder. As he looked Duo in the face he was torn for a moment. Then he slapped Duo hard across the face. "How dare you?" He asked, yanking on his braid. "How dare you?"

Heero punched him hard in the stomach. "Unhand him, or I'll unhand you." He said in a tone of voice that sounded like steel on granite.

"Tobin," Aeka said, stepping between them, "this is Duo, he came to see the show," Tobin hadn't let go his death grip of Duo's braid, but his other hand was protecting his stomach where Heero had punched him, and he had not held back the blow in any way. "He's one of Adam's guests. He wouldn't have known."

Slowly, and warily Tobin looked like he would let go of the braid when there was a distinctive sound of a knife being unsheathed. "Let him go." Mamoru said, "this has nothing to do with you, Vivikan D'Cevni, he just wanted to congratulate you on your performance."

"Are you sure it's a girl, Mamoru?" Tobin asked, his voice was like gravel in cream, and sounded nothing like the voice he sang with. "From where I stand it's a girl…" That was as far as he got before Heero launched at him.

Alister appeared from nowhere pulling Tobin out of the way as Mamoru caught Heero holding him back from what appeared to be ripping Tobin's throat out. "I can handle myself." Duo said pulling a pair of knives from his sleeves. "And my hair is my own." He kicked Tobin hard in the shins. "You owe me an apology, I am not Avili, I'm not nearly half as pretty as her, and she gave me a message for you, she said to tell you it was fine."

"Duo!" Mina snapped as the colour and the fight drained from Tobin as if a plug had been pulled. "That message wasn't for him."

"Mina," Tobin growled, "you said that you could not see her."

"I can't." Minako said quietly. "She's the Taiyo-sama, I could never see her, but Duo is Shinigami." There was a lump in her throat as she spoke. "He can." She stepped in front of Duo for the first time. "Don't touch him." She said, "he couldn't withstand your death visions any more than I can."

"Nor mine," Aeka said, "all the horrors he has seen are his own, but he shouldn't have to share ours."

"You believe him?" Tobin grated out.

"Is there a party and I wasn't invited?" A tall dark blonde said from, he wore the leafed mail that Selestin had worn, but there was a towel around his neck and his face was scoured red. "It's always that way, I swear, ladies, you're all determined to keep him for yourselves, Mina, Ellie." He looked at Aeka when he said that. "Alister, Mamoru, you two are new." He looked at Heero and Duo, "and such pretty boys too, I'm Josian, because no one else here will introduce me."

"It's not a party, Jose," Tobin growled. "Mina brought the new Shinigami for me to meet, he had a message for me from Avili, but the new Senshisha took objection to my grief."

"Omae o korosu," Heero said distinctly.

"I don't think you can," Josian answered with a smile, "bigger, meaner, and more violent people have tried and failed, he has the best scar on his chest where someone stabbed him in the chest. If such things were possible I would say he was immortal, but Onestra and I," he slapped Tobin on the back, "were going on to a party at Lady Millicent's town house, I'm sure she'll be flattered if you all came, the more the merrier and all that, and Millicent would hate to hear it but she's a terrible bore."

Heero's glare seemed to answer the question, but Duo put the words in the air instead. "I don't think so, master Tobin and I haven't got on to the best start, he didn't like my hair, ya'no."

"Your hair is just like hers," Josian's tone suddenly became sombre, "and the shape of your face and your height and build, but you are not her. We never speak of her, not here." Tobin's face looked as if it was broken, the scar that crossed his forehead glowed a bitter red.

"You loved her." Duo said, "and she loved you." He stepped forward. Alister went to step in but Minako's gaze held him still. "She called you her kitten, and said she owned you, and you let her." Duo reached up and touched Tobin's face without fear in any way. "And you sang, you sang only for her. Even tonight, though all the nobles of the country were here to see you perform you sang only for her." Tobin looked distraught.

"K'so." He swore. "Come along, Jose, if we're to make Millie's party we want you out of that armour. Mina, as always, it's been a pleasure, Ellie, you know I love you with all my heart. Alister, I trust we're fine for lunch tomorrow." He went to turn away. "Little Shinigami," he looked Duo in the eye, and his gaze was the colour of frozen green fire, "answer me a single question, if you will."

Duo nodded.

"Are you in love?" He asked, his voice a breathy whisper. Fixed in the power of his gaze, like a snake, Duo made an involuntary step forward, "because if you're in love I won't waste your time," Tobin was taller than Duo and had to lean down to match his eyes. "But someone so beautiful deserves to be in love." He reached out to touch the length of Duo's jaw.

"Foolishness." Heero snorted breaking the spell. He was still restrained by Mamoru, but it gave the impression that it was the only thing stopping Heero from killing him.

"Tobin!" Alister snapped, "leave the boy alone, Master Shinigami," he said taking Duo's hand and pulling him back.

"Surely the Shinigami can choose for himself." Tobin said, "he can come with me to the party and know love, if only briefly, or he can return to the great mausoleum." He stroked his fingertips across Duo's pink lips.

"He's not Avili," Josian said putting his hand on Tobin's shoulder. "Come on, before that boy works a way free. You should know better than to aggravate a Senshisha, after the amount of times that someone had to rescue you." He bowed to the ladies, "sorry ladies, but I will have to love and leave you, because someone is still smarting that the Seraphim interrupted his show and is spoiling for a fight, and I get the impression that the little Senshisha will more than give him one." He had Tobin firmly by the arm and pulled him away.

* * *

Back in their suite in the palace Heero took his clothes off with what was just short of a killing rage, he would not even look at Duo. He noticed the bed was turned down and there was a small metal pan in the centre, obviously to warm it. He threw his boots against the wall, and shattered a glass that he intended to pick up. "What is wrong with you?" Duo asked, sitting on the bed and crossing his arm.

"You, baka." Heero answered, "We're in this thing up to our eyebrows and you're picking fights and then you prepare to jump in bed with this man who was seconds before going to kill you."

Duo was horrified that Heero would have even suggested such a thing. "And you?" Duo answered in the same tone of voice, "you would have ripped his throat out."

"At least I was trying to stop him killing you." Heero answered, pulling the flannel shirt that Prima had hung in front of the fire over his head, "you would have gone with him and I would have found you in a ditch somewhere, some terrorist you turn out to be, some pretty eyes lech at you and you're ready to ditch everything and run off with him."

"I wouldn't have run off with him." Duo shouted back. "Sometimes I really regret busting you out of that damn hospital."

"Don't you dare." Heero snarled back, he turned and with a launch pinned Duo to the bed, "how many times have I saved you, the least you could do is try and save yourself," he was panting with rage and his eyes were flickering with contained emotion. "baka." He stood up. "Now get ready for bed. Minako wants to see us in the morning."

Duo climbed into the bed and pulled his trousers off, throwing them to the floor. "Thanks," he said as Heero blotted out the light, "for standing up for me."


	10. To be the lord of death

Duo slid out of the bed as quietly and as stealthily as he could, but still was frozen in place by a pair of angry Prussian blue eyes. "Where are you going?" Heero asked.

"I can't sleep, I think I might just take a walk." Duo answered, wishing he could lie and just say that he was going to the privy.

Heero was still in a foul mood. "It smells like snow." He snarled, "make sure you put a coat on." He rolled over back into the warmth of the bed, "and we have to meet Mina for breakfast at one past sun up. You might want to sleep before then."

Duo had never expected that Heero might just let him go, he had expected two answers, one that Heero would demand he get back into the bed, and the other that he would insist on going with him. "I'm just going for a walk, I'm not going to meet Tobin." He said.

"I know." Heero said into his pillow without turning over. "You don't lie."

That meant more to Duo than he quite expected, he didn't even know why he had even qualified it. "I will be back soon."

"Three hours, baka." Heero answered, "then I'll come and get you."

The walls of Halcyon were remarkably crowded. A plump woman in a heavy red cloak stood looking out to sea, her blonde hair was a mess of ringlets, to which her hood was pinned. Duo stood next to her. She was much older than anyone he knew, but she wore a fantastical beauty that time had done little to change. Like Minako she was a woman who had become beautiful. "Hello, ducky." She said turning to look at him.

"Do I know you?" Duo asked.

"I thought everyone knew me." She said sadly, "I am Livia, the dowager of Jacurutu, will you grace me with your name, ducky?" It didn't matter to Duo that she called him Ducky, she sounded so sad. It seemed to give her comfort to talk to him, part of him wondered if she was one of the dead.

"Duo Maxwell," he answered. "Couldn't you sleep either?"

"No," she said, "I don't sleep very well anymore. Sometimes I walk the walls, the sea air soothes me. I'm sorry," She reached out and touched his face, "my sorrow is my own, I shall leave you, ducky, leave an old woman to her night time wandering." She bent down and kissed him on the cheek in a strange gesture. "You're a beautiful boy, Duo Maxwell, and I ask only that you remember the cortigiana onesta who spoke to you." Then she walked away leaving him with questions and a mist of her cloying perfume.

He walked along the wall, saying hello to a guard, but when the guard turned to acknowledge him his throat was missing. Duo backed away and bumped into a young girl in a long white dress, her hair was the colour of moonlight and her eyes were like dark pansies, she smiled when she saw him, and then wicked as a sprite with a laugh she ran, looking back to make sure Duo was following her. Unsure what else to do, he did.

When she reached the corner that overlooked the east courtyard she turned to face him, and then with a winning smile blew him a kiss, then fell over backwards off the wall and to the ground below.

"She always falls." Minako said behind him, wrapping a fur over his shoulders. "I saw you when you walked past the window, I thought you might like someone to talk to."

"Do you always see them?" Duo asked.

She nodded, "most of them mean no harm, Eluneth," she gestured at the wall with her head, "the girl who fell, is most often weeping as she runs, she was murdered here, but it's nice to see her smile."

"She was so beautiful." Duo said sadly. "And so very young."

"Yes," Minako said, "she was, but now she will always be beautiful and always be so very young." She wrapped her arm about his shoulders. "Come inside, your Senshisha will worry if you're gone too long."

"What about Mamoru?" Duo asked looking up at her, he had never realised that she was taller than him, but she stood nearly half a foot above her.

"He worries." Minako said, "but he sent me to talk to you. He trusts the dead to protect me when he can not."

"She was so sad." Duo said, "she was so very sad, and I didn't know what to say to her."

"Eluneth?" Minako asked, "I thought she looked happy."

"No," Duo answered sadly, "Livia."

"Livia left her room?" Minako asked shocked, then she realised what Duo meant, "She's not dead, she's just lost her husband though, just being there for her would have meant the world to her. Did you see anyone else?"

"there was a guard." Duo answered, "his throat was slit."

Minako nodded. "They know you can see them now, they want you to see them, some of them don't realise that they aren't trapped in their death cycle, like Eluneth, she always falls. I remember my first major death vision." She led him through the small wooden door and into a small sitting room where she built up the fire. "I was taken by my mother into a hospital, I thought I'd go mad." She poured him a glass of wine. "There's no easy way to face them, Duo, all you can do is face them. It's nice because they can offer you comfort even when you think you can break. The first time you walk a battlefield and they turn to you because they don't know what else to do you think you'll shatter. That's when you need your Senshisha. He will be your rock. I can train you, I can show you, but I can't shield you." She let him curl up on the couch next to her and rest his head in her lap. "You know you're like a son to me, because you're the only one that will ever understand."

"What about Mamoru?" Duo asked as she started to stroke his hair.

"He never loved me." She answered, "we were too young." Her voice was soft and sad, "he was your age and I was twelve, my mother had just died and I was taken to Dramathen and married to him before I knew what was happening. He was made my Senshisha because he was strongest and quickest, not because I chose him." She was stroking Duo's hair softly, the room warm and he was slowly drifting into sleep. "I don't sleep much anymore," she said. "They come to me in my sleep, not the dead, but my memories.

"Maybe it's time." Minako said, "do you want to take him back, now Heero?" She said to the dark shadow in the back of the room.

"When did you know I was there?" Heero asked, he was an assassin, there was no way she could have heard him, even Duo, the master of stealth, hadn't noticed.

Her smile was vulpine. "You can't creep up on the lady of Meirin, those you bring with you would have alerted me to your presence even if I hadn't seen you in the mirror."

* * *

Duo woke in Heero's arms not quite sure how he had gotten there or why he felt so safe there. His first instinct was to snuggle closer, but his second instinct was that this was Heero's arms and the perfect soldier wasn't in the best of moods with him to begin with. He did his best to remove himself without disturbing Heero, who merely grumbled in his sleep and tightened his grip.

"G'sleep." Heero murmured. "S'not morning."

"Master Heero," Primaverra said ripping open the curtains. "Master Duo, good morning. I have a bath prepared." She didn't seem in any way fazed by seeing Duo wrapped in Heero's arms. "Lady Minako has said that you are to have breakfast with her this morning, so I didn't bring you breakfast. She also said that Master Duo that you are not pleased with the way I dress your hair, why did you not tell me?" She yanked open another curtain. "Now come along, Master Heero, you're going to have to let him go if you're to go in the bath." She swatted him playfully with a hairbrush.

Duo flinched expecting Heero to, at best, kill the girl outright. "G'way." He mumbled instead.

"You leave me no choice." She said, "I'll just have to let you sleep and let the bath go cold." It was an attempt at emotional blackmail.

"Good." Heero answered and reaching over Duo closed the curtain again.

"Heero," Duo murmured, "We've got to get up." He tried to wriggle but Heero wasn't letting him go in any way. "If nothing else I need to go." He was bouncing.

Heero let him go. "Prima," he said to the curtain, "tell the Lady Minako we will be late, that master Shinigami and I have a few things to discuss, and Duo, you've got five minutes, then I come and get you."

"Yes, master Heero." She said with a little laugh in her voice, "by your command."

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's notes
> 
> I've been told that people are having problem with the indigenous cast so here you go, a crib sheet.
> 
> Shinigami no Minako Tenno-sha (Minako/Mina) - the lady of Meirin and the Darin ambassador to Dathyl.
> 
> Takehito no Mamoru Senshisha (Mamoru) - Her guardian and husband
> 
> Alister D'Cevni - The queen's secretary, kind of like prime minister or president.
> 
> Aeka Baatorin - The queen (also called Eladriel which is why some of them call her Ellie)
> 
> Matherion D'Karioni - Duke of Jacurutu and the Seraphim Lord, meaning he rules the Seraphim. He is very ambitious.
> 
> Primaverra - Duo and Heero's maid.
> 
> Tobin D'Cevni (also Vivikan Tobrettin Mikael D'Cevni) Alister's younger brother, primadonna at the Dathyl Opera.
> 
> Josian - Tobin's prime crony, sings at the opera.
> 
> Terenz D'Cevni- the queen's physician - he talks really fast
> 
> Adam D'Cevni - the queen's apothecary - a scientist
> 
> Grace D'Allaro - the queen's surgeon
> 
> Brisen - madam of the scarlet arches
> 
> Most of the characters are irrelevant, but if you have any questions about any other characters just ask.
> 
> The Dead
> 
> Avili - Was Primaverra's Lady, married to Tobin, killed by Seraphim in accident. (Killed by Danan D'Karioni - Matt's brother)
> 
> Eluneth - D'Cevni princess who was murdered.


	11. Talking to the Lady of Meirin

"We need to talk." Heero said the instant that Duo got back into the bed. "God, Duo, you're as cold as stone."

"You're not Heero." Duo said, looking at him with a little worry. "Heero wouldn't say that."

"Do you wonder about the other pilots?" Heero asked, changing the subject. "I think that they think we are dead."

"That tends to happen when you blow up." Duo said sadly, "I kinda miss them though, even Wufei shouting injustice at everything, and calling me a stupid onna, and Trowa's really dry wit, and the way Quat' just listened, ya'know. He'd probably think I was just plain loopy now, I mean, as I can hear the dead."

"You are not mad." Heero said softly, stroking Duo's bangs. "It is just new."

"Heero would never be so kind." Duo said, "and Heero wouldn't blow off an appointment to talk to me."

"I took you back last night, after you met Minako-sama. I," Heero stopped, uncomfortable with this. "Am I your friend, Duo?"

"Yes," Duo answered, "you're my best friend." Duo thought it was a stupid question, of course Heero was his friend.

"Then I want to help you. I do not understand what is happening here and it scares me, I can not even imagine how it terrifies you, I am your friend and I can not help you." For the first time in their acquaintance Heero looked vulnerable.

"You do help." Duo said. "You're there."

"Lady Minako-sama said I should be your rock and I do not know how to be."

Duo glomped him, throwing his arms around him and pressing his neck to his chest. "Sometimes, Heero, I really love you."

A pair of hands clapped loud just outside the curtains, "unless you boys are fornicating, I want you out of that bed." Minako said ripping open the curtain, "and if you are, I'm telling Aeka I got to see it." Upon seeing them she burst out laughing. "Were you fornicating?" She asked, she didn't look at all embarrassed, but pleasantly flushed as if from exercise. "Because I was only joking."

"We were talking." Duo said, "now will you go away for five minutes so I can put some pants on."

"If I didn't know you couldn't lie, Duo," Minako said with a really impish smile, "I could take that in so many ways." Heero threw a pillow at her. "Protected by your Senshisha, how quickly you learn the ways of Meirin." She said holding the pillow and affecting a rather lecturing tone of voice. "Anyway, I'm not here for you, this morning, I am going to kidnap your Senshisha and have my wicked way with him." Her expression was impish, but Heero's on the other hand, was terrified. "nothing to worry about, my little loves. Duo, I'll just be outside, let me know when you're done, but if you do start fornicating, let me know. Aeka will be so jealous." She turned around in a flounce of her elaborately pleated kimono.

"She's in a good mood." Heero said, sliding out of the bed.

"Suspiciously." Duo added. "She's as bad as Noin trying to pair us up so she can see us in bed together."

Heero made a sound that was suspiciously like a giggle. "I think she just did."

As Duo tugged on his pants his stomach groaned, a loud roar of a noise that brought a flush of colour to his cheeks with embarrassment, he didn't know whether to cover his face or his stomach. "Why don't you go to get something to eat?" Heero said, "and I will find out what Miss Minako wants of me."

"Be kind to her." Duo said, shocking himself, "she's very lonely, I don't think she realises just how much." He brushed Heero's hair away from his face, "she isn't very happy."

"I heard her last night." Heero said, adjusting the sweater that Duo had pulled over his head, tugging out the braid so it lay against the wool. "I have no intention of killing her, she wishes to talk to me, and I must admit that I am curious as to why."

"Just, don't be mean, with the death glares, and the Omae o Korosu and the hns." Duo said, gently. "I'll see you later, okay. Then we can talk properly."

* * *

Minako was in a good mood, a rather worrisome one, when Heero met her at the door, she looped her arm through his rather girlishly and said they were going to have a rather girly chat. Heero wondered if Duo had foreseen this when he had said not to kill her. "I have no idea how to proceed with this, Minako-sama." Heero said staring at the floor.

"It's fine." Minako said, "and call me Mina, all will make sense."

She took him into the portrait gallery where long dead kings and queens glared off the walls at them. "No one ever comes in here, so we can talk as long as we like, I want you to tell me about Duo." She sat down on one of the velvet couches that were littered around the hall.

"He is a good soldier." Heero said, after stammering for a bit. "He is worried that I might offend you."

Minako laughed. "Do you know he calls you Hee-chan?" She asked.

Heero blushed bright red; he couldn't stop it. "I knew it, you love him." She exclaimed girlishly.

"It is of no matter." Heero said, "he is efficient, he would not care for it." Minako's face softened until she looked fond. "How is it that I was discovered? I had thought that my feelings were mine alone?"

"First of all," she said with a knowing wink, "it is impossible to lie to me, because your dead will just contradict you, I guessed at the opera, when you called him baka." She looked fond, like Relena when she looked at puppies or babies. "There is a legend in Meirin, where I was born, about a girl, and every time she said "by your command" she really told him "I love you," it was my favourite story when I was a child. So when I saw you call him baka I realised you weren't calling him an idiot at all, you were trying in your own way to tell him how you felt." Heero was stammering. "I think it's wonderful, you are his Senshisha, you'll be together till death, it is easier if there is affection between you. Mamoru and I grew bitter with the resentment between us, Duo cares for you a great deal, it is only a step from such care to love." Her smile was beaming, "and it was really obvious when you got so jealous about Tobin, he wouldn't have done anything. Tobin may be a tart, but he really does look like Avili."

"I would see this Avili that looks like Duo." Heero said stiffly.

"I thought you'd see it like that, so I brought you here." She stood up and took his hand, normally Minako wasn't as tactile but Heero just acquiesced to the demanding hand. The portrait she showed him was of a woman in shining golden armour with a long diaphanous skirt that fell around her ankles in swatches, it was more like she wore several pieces of fabric that had never been sewn together. The golden armour she wore hugged her figure and showed off the sword she held, but it was her face that caught Heero's attention, and her long streaming honey coloured hair. Apart from the colour of her eyes she really did look like Duo. "Tobin painted it, it's supposed to be the goddess Acuya but he took Avili as his model."

"She was beautiful." Heero breathed, caught unawares but the girl's beauty.

"Only when she laughed." Minako replied, "when she laughed the world laughed with her, she was always smiling, but inside she was as fragile as cracked glass. He loved her very much."

"She looks like Duo." He answered.

"And yet nothing like him." Minako said quietly, "she was vivacious, and was into everything, you couldn't keep a secret from her, if Avili was tempered glass, bright and shining, then Duo is tempered steel, flashing and deadly."

"This place has changed him." Heero said, "the dead torment him, he is normally full of energy, he does not walk he bounces and he laughs, he laughs all the time, at me, at the others, here he is frightened, and I fear for him."

"I know." Minako said, "that is why I wanted to talk to you, to show you Avili, to explain about Tobin. You are his rock, be there for him, Heero Yuy," she reached forward and kissed his cheek. "Protect him, he would never let anyone else, love him, as he loves you."

"He loves me?" Heero asked.

"I am the Lady of Meirin, I cannot lie." She said with an impish grin, "you are his dearest friend in all the world, he trusts you implicitly, of course he loves you, he just might need a shove to admit it. Come weeks end we are travelling to Dramathen for the winter fair and the Day of the Dead. The empress has demanded I attend and that I bring Duo with me, whilst there we will travel to Meirin and the Aegis will answer all your questions."

"Mina-sama." Heero said, looking for the first time into her hard grey eyes, "he really loves me?"

* * *

Duo looked at the plate of food that Rachel the cook had lain in front of him. "Why hello," a gravely voice said from behind him, "if it isn't my favourite tenno-sha?" It was the opera singer Tobin, and his friend, Josian. They were dressed for a day in the city. "I wanted to apologise for my behaviour, I was out of order." He said, it didn't look like he was prompted. "Your hair and well, it came as a shock and I was out of order." He held out his hand for Duo to shake. "Friends?" He asked with a winning smile. This Tobin was almost painfully attractive, he was very pale but did not look in any way sickly and the only thing that detracted from the perfection of his features was the scar across his face, but calm it was more like a line of make up, silvery in the light.

"Acquaintances." Duo said noting the man's hand but not taking it. His eyes were snake green and piercing.

"Well, close enough, now I owe you a massive apology for calling you a girl and slapping you, so how about you accompany Jose and I into the city, we're going shopping for the Day of the Dead, wanna come?"

Duo considered it, he had no other plans for the day, there was no reason not to, and he could probably find out more about his handsome man. "Deal," he said taking the man's hand.

_Tobin opened the door with a wrench and a heavy creak that suggested it hadn't been used in a hundred or more years. He heard the silence like he never had before. It was more frightening than any noise could be. Adam had left him along to check these dark and simple corridors under the palace where the horses were stabled because he doubted that the Garvem had even found them and if they had Tobin could manage on his own. Here in this place even the birds didn't sing. The only birds he had seen were carrion crows who blotted out the sun when startled._

_The air tasted of blood._

_He turned a corner and saw a servant child. She had been cut down with a knife left in her throat and brightly coloured doll in her fat fingers. Her face had been hacked clear away with heavy handed slashes. At her feet lay a small dog. Its head had been bisected with a single down-handed motion. Without knowing why Tobin picked the child up in his arms, pressing her to the black jacket Adam had given him and went deeper into the corridor, careful of how he held her so she didn't drop her doll. _

_There was a servant from the stable on the wall. It was just a common stableman. The golden birdcage he had been forced into held him aloft. His arms and legs had been cut away with his face. Though they were absent. He was a man, that he had been left, but he was also only a torso in a cage. The same person had killed them._

_He opened door after door to find corpse after corpse. All caught in terrible complicity as if they knew something they should not. All eyeless. All noseless. All lipless. Teeth smashed in. Faces unmade by knives. Knives lay blunted all over the floor like confetti. He began to cry. He could feel the hot tears along his face like fire falling unto the little girl in his arms. A girl who died with her favourite doll in her hands._

_In one room someone had played skittles with several vases and a human head. _

_A table had been laid complete with candles and on the central plate, although now covered with maggots that seethed and writhed was a cat, complete with fur that had been slashed through._

_A obscene rhyme had been written on the wall in blood, the brush and bucket still beneath it. It was crawling with flies now._

_Tobin, thinking he might be sick, leaned back against the door behind him. It swung open under his weight and he stumbled, turning to catch himself before he fell. What he saw caused him to drop the little girl in his arms and lurched to the corner where he emptied his stomach with empty belching noises. A man, like the stableman in the cage, hung from the wall. A spike suspended him through his solar plexus. His face, like all the others had been removed, but he still had his eyes. His crotch was missing, He had insect bites all over his chest and it was seething under the skin with maggots. It was not that which made Tobin vomit._

_Lying across the table in this room was two of the princesses of J'Dan. He knew that because they still wore their oak leaf crowns. It was their only dignity. They were naked. They still had their faces, though their jaws had been smashed. It was the rest of them unmade by the knife. Their breasts had been torn away and their ribs were showing in places. More disturbing, even though they were staring at Tobin, was the way their bodies had been arranged. Their eyes lay in gobbets on the floor._

_He had dropped the child into the oily slick of blood and waste on the floor and the air was thick with flies. Before he knew what he was doing he was sprinting. His hand undoing the binasu he had looped about his waist and his face wet with tears._

Duo pulled back his hand and wiped at his face, he thought he might be sick. "I'm sorry," he said, preparing to run, "I'm so very sorry."

Josian caught him as it looked like he might faint, toppling from his stool. "Death vision?" He asked.

"One of mine," Tobin answered his friend ruefully as Duo lost all trace of consciousness. "Honeybourne I think."

"Rachel?" Josian asked, picking Duo up like he had no weight at all, "looks like we're not staying for breakfast, let's get this little man into bed."


	12. What Duo saw

Tobin laid Duo down on his bed, before Josian pulled the blanket up over him. He looked much smaller than he had in the kitchen, he looked drained and there were shadows under his eye. "Jose, I'll stay with him, go find Mina, and Mamoru, and Terenz."

"Surely Grace." Josian began.

"Terenz takes care of them while they're living, Grace gets them when they're dying, this boy has death visions, get my brother." Tobin said, putting his hand on Duo's forehead. "And see if you can find his Senshisha."

Josian nodded and left the room at a run.

"I'm sorry," Tobin said, "Mina distinctly told me not to touch you, and I didn't listen, I'm sorry." He bent down and laid a feathery kiss on Duo's forehead, "I'm so sorry."

Sitting back he made sure Duo was lying as peacefully as he could, though his eyes were flitting back and forth under his lids, brushing his hair back, Tobin did the only thing he could think of whilst he waited, he sang.

"_Live in virtue, no desire,_  
In the grave an angel's choir  
You look to heaven and wonder why  
No one can see them in the sky

Just as the clouds have gone to sleep  
Angels can be seen in heaven's keep  
Alone in fear they question why  
Please not an angel when I die

Angels live, they never die  
Apart from us, behind the sky  
They're fading souls who've turned to ice  
So ashen white in paradise."

"As always, Tobin," Terenz said from the door, he had his sleeves rolled up and a heavy leather bag in his arms, "beautiful, though why is it always that miserable, miserable lullaby, I know Eluneth sang it when you were little but never anything happy is it, but then again, as you managed to break the lord of Meirin here with a death vision you couldn't be singing "the happy little elf goes to Market singing tra la la la lee."

He pushed Tobin out of the way and manoeuvred himself that he could see Duo, pulling back his eyelids to measure his pupils, and checking his pulse and then smelling his breath. "Honeybourne?" he asked, holding up Duo's wrist.

"I think so." Tobin answered, "Jose was going to get Mina and both Senshisha, I didn't mean to do this." His lip was quivering. "I tried to apologise that's all."

"It's all right, Tobin," Minako said from the doorway, "at least you got help, why don't you go down to the kitchens and get a bottle of your special brew for when he wakes up. If he's anything like me, when he wakes up he'll want something to drink, the stronger the better." He lowered his head and went to walk past her, but she caught his shoulder and kissed him on the forehead. "No one's blaming you, we'll blame Braea Merick who ordered the massacre and we'll warn Aeka that he's seen it, and she is definitely not to touch him now, until we have a chance to warn him." Tobin went to leave. "Did you send Josian to find his Senshisha?" Tobin nodded, all of his self-confidence gone leaving behind a scared child, once he had lain like this, and the memory terrified him. "Go get the liquor, go on." And like a child he obeyed her.

Minako sat down beside him on the bed, murmuring soothing words in the hope that Duo could hear her.

"It's just shock," Terenz said, "keep him warm, I'll make up a tea for him to drink to settle his nerves when he wakes up," he reached out and touched Duo's head, "keep him in bed for a few days, I'll be back in about an hour, but Lady Evradale's new baby has colic and I need to see to him, I'm not abandoning him, Minako-sama, but I do have other patients."

Minako looked up at him. "Thank you." She said, "at least Tobin had wit enough to send for you and not for Grace, her death visions would shatter him." She sounded sad. "Leave the tea, I'll make sure that he drinks it."

"What is going on here?" Heero asked from the door, he had been in the courtyard training with Mamoru who stood behind him.

"Tobin touched him." Minako said, "come here." She held her hand out for Heero, "now take off your shirt."

"Mina." Mamoru growled behind him.

"I know what I'm doing," Minako snapped, "get in behind him, take off his shirt, and hold him. None of us can do this for him."

Heero did as he was told, gathering Duo in his arms, "this is called Leeching, Mamoru's never had to do it for me, your presence will give him comfort. This was an accident, nothing more. He saw something that's scared him, Terenz will come and go to keep an eye on him, and I'll be nearby, but Heero, just hold him. The rest will happen naturally."

Mamoru grabbed her by the arm and pulled her into the corridor as Heero started to play with Duo's hair, he'd never really had the opportunity before. "What are you doing? I've seen you in worse states." Mamoru hissed.

"Duo relies on him, it will give him comfort, skin on skin is remarkably calming. They don't know it's not what you're meant to do." She looked at them, Heero had even gone to the bother of making Duo comfortable where he had lain him between Heero's thighs. "And Heero loves him," she said sadly, "what are we supposed to do? wait till he wakes sobbing to give him comfort."

"There is a line between Senshisha and Tennosha for a reason." Mamoru said in a low voice, they didn't want the two boys to hear them.

"And what is the reason, dearest husband? They are going to be together till they die together," she hissed, "though they don't know that yet, but surely it's better that they find comfort in each other because they will never have another. No one else will be able to give Duo succour when the visions come, and no one else will be able to get through Heero's conditioning."

"You make a grave mistake, Minako, when they discover your machinations to throw them together they will despise both each other and you."

"Mamoru, I have been your wife since I was twelve years old, and I have been your Tennosha during all that time, there has always been a void between us." She lowered her eyes, "even when I was young enough to believe you my hero sent to rescue me from the tower, they are friends, dear friends, and love can spring from poorer soil."

"You maintained the void as well as I, Mina, and through that void I have kept you alive longer than your father managed your mother." He snarled.

"My father killed my mother." Minako shouted back, Heero heard it, because he looked up to see them arguing.

"Which is why there is a line between Senshisha and Tennosha." He answered in a dark voice, "love and death do not bedfellows make. You should know that better than most. Now if you will excuse me, my lady, I have an appointment in town with a sword maker."

"Do you remember your vow, Mamoru?" She asked.

"Of course," he answered, "no sword will kill you, unless it be mine."

"If you want to kill me, kill me. I will think no less of you." She said, though he towered over her, being nearly a foot taller and much more broad, she seemed his match. "There is not much left that would make me think less of you, husband."

"You never cared for me," he answered, "because I wasn't dead."

Slamming his heels down he left them and Minako walked back into the room to find Heero staring at her. "You didn't need to see that." She said. He shrugged. "He's wrong," she lowered her eyes and it looked for a moment like she might cry, "once I loved him very much indeed, but he never let me." She shrugged away the emotion, I'm sorry, Heero, you really didn't need to see that."

Heero was stroking Duo's hair, running his fingers delicately over the scalp as he had always wanted to. "It is not my place to judge." He said, "Duo said to be kind to you, he said you were unhappy, is this why?"

Minako gaped for a moment. "He's perceptive." She said, "but yes. My husband and I are not allies in all things." He noticed how stiff she became when she spoke of him, "but those are conversations for liquor and regrets," she suddenly became cheery, but Heero didn't trust it.

"You said your father killed your mother." Heero said.

Minako lowered her eyes, in his own way, she supposed, he was offering her comfort. "Yes, he did." She said, "he took the sword his father gave him for becoming Senshisha and he killed her." She took a deep breath. "She asked him to, and rather than make her unhappy in any way, he did, then he killed himself."

"How old were you?" He asked.

"Twelve." She answered. "She tired of the visions. She tired of being the emperor's whipping boy when it came to things and in a moment of weakness she yearned for death and rather than deny her, he killed her." Her voice was calm.

"I do not remember my parents." Heero said, "and I know little of people, only what Duo and the others have tried to teach me, but I am sorry for your loss."

Minako gave a small life. "It is not a simple life given to the family of Meirin," she said, "we are surrounded by death, all those we love die and we are destined to never see them, so that we can better understand the loss of others. Yet, our purpose isn't for the living, Heero, we serve the dead." She took a deep sigh, "where's Tobin with the liquor? at this rate, I could do with a glass."

Heero visibly growled.

"He means no harm." Minako said, "He is lost without her, that is all." Heero's face had settled back into its expressionless mask. "He was trying to apologise."

"And this is his way of apologising?" Heero asked. "Leaving him unconscious?" From anyone else it would have been sarcastic.

"He has seen horrors you would not understand, there are things about this place that no one has told you. Did Duo tell you of Eluneth, the girl that jumps from the tower, or what he saw that day in the market when he touched Malchia D'Eschane?" Heero didn't lower his gaze in any way.

"There is another country, to the east, called Sidi." She said, choosing instead to explain, "It is ruled by a witch, a draima, called Achren." She lowered her eyes, "Aeka is from Honeybourne, she has seen the horror that Duo saw, but I would rather you understood. Achren is not an evil person, but she is surrounded by powerful men that will not accept a slight against her. She is strong, but together they are stronger, they are called the Garvem." She took a breath. "Honeybourne lies in the protectorate of J'dan, and was neither of Dathyl nor Sidi. The Garvem tired of the slight on their lady's honour sacked it." She stopped. "It was a massacre, they left no one alive, only Aeka because the general wanted to keep her." She stopped again, "the mark on her neck was from where they strangled her." She couldn't meet his gaze, "because of Achren's involvement, the queen, Acuya keep her close, couldn't trust the reports, so she sent a group of Seraphim to check, and to keep the Seraphim in line she sent three royal envoys, one of which was Tobin.

"Not trusting him the Seraphim sent him into the stables where they had piled the bodies, thinking nothing would be there. He was mad for days, he washed the floors of Honeybourne, he will tell no one of what he saw, but I was mother to him when he had none other, and not knowing what the vision would do to me, he touched me, much like he touched Duo, with no malice, with no harm, and I saw what he had seen in the bowels of Honeybourne." Her voice was low and sonorous. "They had played with the bodies. It was not like a battle, where there are dead that have been torn apart from the fighting, it was deliberate and it was slow and it was horrible." She stopped again, "I," there were tears in her eyes, "I," the words were gone, "I can't get rid of the memory and mine is only second hand. It was barely two years ago. That is what Duo saw." She stopped again, "Heero, a death vision is like a slap in the face, it doesn't happen in normal time, it happens all at once, and it can overwhelm us and sometimes it doesn't affect us. Honeybourne was terrible and the Seraphim do not forgive, they seek war to avenge what they saw, but they need the royal envoy to back them up."

"Which is why they attack Tobin." Heero answered calmly.

She nodded.

"He is not a bad person." She said, "he has been alone all of his life and I do not believe for an instant he meant harm when he shook Duo's hand."

Heero lowered his eyes.

There was a knock on the door, Tobin stuck his head around, "I'm sorry if I'm intruding, but I've got the liquor and Rachel sent up some soup." He pushed open the door to reveal the tray he had balanced on his hip. He laid it on the ottoman at the end of the bed. "I'll just be going."

Heero looked at him, matched his cold green gaze with one of his own. "I will kill you." He said firmly.

Tobin only smiled at him. "Is that a promise?" He said, but it didn't sound at all mocking, in fact it sounded hopeful.

"Heero?" Duo asked, his voice was raspy.

"I'm here," Heero said, running his fingers down Duo's arm.

"You're always here." He said. "You are my rock."

Minako stood up, "How do you feel?" She asked, pouring some of the thin green liquid into a cup.

"Like death," Duo answered, "that someone gave a kicking to before leaving him in a damp alley." Heero smiled at the answer, that sounded like his Duo.

"Here," she said handing him the cup, "I think you need it."

* * *


	13. Fading souls who've turned to ice

"What happened?" Duo asked, cradling the cup.

"You had a death vision," Minako explained quietly, "you passed out, you've been out for about an hour."

Duo frowned and took a mouthful of the liquor and then burst out coughing. "What's this stuff made of?"

"Apples," Minako answered, "mostly."

"You could run a vernier off that stuff." Duo said, taking another mouthful.

"How do you feel?" Heero asked from behind him.

"Rotten, and this stuff tastes like something died in it," he held out the cup for Minako to refill.

"The doctor says that it's shock and you're to stay in bed for a few days." Minako said, replacing the cup with a bowl of soup.

"Don't think so." Duo answered, "I'm a gundam pilot and I'm a soldier, I'm fed up of this being weak malarkey, I have fought with broken limbs and head traumas and I won't let the memories of one massacre prevent me from doing it again." He scratched his head, "Heero, you're actually comfortable, can you believe it?" He moved the spoon around in the soup obviously with little appetite, which disturbed Heero more than he wanted to let on. "I've seen massacres before, I was even there for one, I'm not gonna let a little death vision of children stop me."

"There were children?" Heero asked.

Duo nodded and pushed aside the soup, "I'm not hungry." He said, "I could really do with a bath though, I kinda feel dirty."

Minako smiled, "I'll get Dieina to send up a bath and someone to help you with it, and I'll see if I can find Terenz on my travels." She reached over and kissed Duo on the forehead, "get some rest, my little senshi." Then with a smile at Heero she left the room.

Duo wriggled himself free of Heero's embrace and poured himself more of the liquor. "What really happened?" He asked Heero.

"You collapsed." Heero answered, "I was with Mamoru at the time, the opera singer Josian came running looking for the both of us, he had already fetched the Lady Minako and Lord Terenz, master Tobin was looking over you." Duo looked at him with huge purple eyes. "To make sure nothing else happened, he is the one that put you to bed, Lady Minako suggested that I join you so you would not be alone when you woke, she said that my skin touching yours would give comfort." Duo nodded, draining the cup with a cough. "Is that stuff really that strong?"

With an impish smile Duo handed him the cup and refilled it, Heero drained it in a gulp then pulled a face. "Space," he said his eyes watering. "Apples," he said, "mostly." He handed Duo back the cup, "Lady Minako had an argument with Mamoru." He said, "I was caught up in it through no fault of my own, he believes that she is tryign to throw us together, and I must admit that I share the idea."

Duo shrugged, "She must have a reason, Mina's not the kinda person to do it just for kicks."

"Their argument was strange, they spoke softly, they did not want me to hear."

Duo grinned, "but super perfect soldier ears heard anyway."

Heero nodded, "she asked him to kill her, I think it is the nature of the pairing between Tennosha and Senshisha that they end in this manner, it seems that Lady Minako's mother was killed by her father, and that the Senshisha oath is simply, no sword shall kill you unless it be mine." He frowned. "I would not kill you, Duo, so I wonder if I would be the best choice to be your Senshisha."

Duo looked at him for a moment in bemused wonder, then burst out laughing. "I know you won't kill me," he said, standing up and rolling his shoulders, "and you can be my Senshisha if I want you to be, even if you don't kill me. Couple more of those visions though and I might want antidepressants." He gave Heero his best and most winning smile. "But, I mean how many people live through massacres like that, I can't imagine it happening again, and as long as I'm careful, I mean I thought about this last night when I went for a walk, but didn't pay too much attention to myself and took Tobin's hand anyway, how was I to know that was lurking under his skin, I mean I got nothing when he slapped me."

"Duo," Heero said, "shut up."

"Are you jealous?" He asked.

"No," Heero answered stiffly.

"Really?" Heero was saved from having to answer by the entrance of a maid in a shimmering brown tunic.

"Milords," she said with a bow, "I am Otonna, I was led to understand that you had requested a bath."

Duo blushed to the roots of his fair hair, "umm, it's all right, I can bathe myself."

Otonna laughed, "I am here to draw the bath, this is not Dramathen, our guests are often capable of managing their own toilet."

"Are you related to Primaverra?" Heero asked, "because you look like her."

"I am her sister." Otonna said, opening one of the doors, she was smiling, "she has told me all about the both of you. I am one of the maids that serves Lady Minako." She lowered her head but her grin was wicked, "and what Prima hasn't told me you can guarantee Lady Minako has."

"I am sure that the Lady Minako is prone to exaggeration of our virtues." Heero said, standing up.

"I don't know," Otonna said with a distinct leer, "I've always had a thing for young Senshi." She laughed at Heero's look of panic.

"You're more of a tease than Prima." Duo said with a smile as she went into the other room to draw the bath, "you won't put shiny things in my hair, will you?"

"Certainly not," Otonna said, "Lady Minako said that Lord Terenz said that you were to stay abed, and it's hard to do that with "shiny things" sticking you in the scalp." From a shelf she lifted a large bottle and unstopped it, taking a deep breath. "Rose oil?" She asked. Heero growled. She lifted a second bottle, "Frankincense." Seeing as Heero didn't seem to care for that one, she put it back, the third was treated in the same manner, "roasted almond?" She asked, "no, that's a little sickly." The last bottle was a misty blue, "when in doubt there's always old faithful," without even smelling it.

"What is it?" Duo asked hanging over her shoulder. "Oh, that smells lovely." He took a deep breath.

"Camomile and rosehip," she answered, "it's made specifically for the queen but Dieina always sticks a few bottles of it away."

"Won't she mind?" Heero asked.

"Of course not, if she had have minded she would have taken it out. Now, strip, lad, into the bath with you and I'll wash your hair for you." For a whole second Duo looked worried. "Come now, I have bathed Lord Mamoru, Lord Tobin and even Lord Alister, do you really think that you have something I haven't seen before," she stopped, "unless Lord Terenz has told you that you do." Her look was so impish and naughty that Duo burst out laughing and then peeled off his trousers before climbing into the warm bath.

There were two small pumps in the room, one for hot water and one for cold and she filled a brass ewer and before she poured it over his head she undid the braid in quick deft movements, humming. Heero recognised the tune but he could not have said from where. "Are you going to come in and sit on that stool?" Otonna asked him with a grin, "or perch in the doorway and left the draught in, come in, lad, come in." Heero did as he was bid as she held out a bar of soap for Duo, "it's made of orange and cinnamon so it smells kind of sweet," she said, "I'll use it on your hair." She lifted a second bar.

"Heero, I think I've died and gone to bath heaven." Duo said under her deft fingers.

"Will you be wanting a bath as well?" Otonna asked with a smile. Heero was dumbfounded. "I have sons older than both of you," she said, although she looked no older than Une, "and part of me wants to just hug you both until you cry out mercy, but I won't." She went back to humming as Duo almost melted into the water.

"What is that song?" Heero asked suddenly.

"It's a lullaby." She answered, then sang a few bars, _Angels live, they never die, Apart from us, behind the sky, They're fading souls who've turned to ice, So ashen white in paradise." _She gave him a winning grin, "I sang it to my boys when they were babies, it's just natural I suppose." She filled the ewer again to wash out the soap, her tunic was almost soaked through. "You're so going to enjoy yourselves at the day of the dead, I was with Lady Avili last year in Dramathen, everyone dresses up and there's a huge party in the Dairai, and you can dance with the empress and Lady Minako hosts it, and the children go veiled and knock on doors and ask for sweets. It is a wonderful festival, I wish they had it in Dathyl."

"Sounds like Halloween." Duo murmured.

"Its the day the doors are opened to the dead." Otonna answered, "everyone enjoys themselves and gets very drunk, and well, as family of Meirin you'll be right in the thick of it, the both of you, and maybe if he can be persuaded Tobin will sing there, because he's only allowed into Dramathen on Day of the Dead, and the Jesuel do the sacred dance of the nine veils."

"The who?" Duo asked, barely catching the word.

"Jeseul," Otonna answered, "they're the emperor's concubines." Duo nodded as if that made sense, "they're the nine loveliest women in the empire, intelligent, educated women, but then again all Hentai are."

"Pardon." Duo asked.

"Hentai." Otonna repeated the word, "It means artisans, they're courtesans."

Duo was laughing as he stepped into the sheet that Otonna held out for him, "in our world, that's not what it means."

"Baka," Heero murmured under his breath, glad that Duo was finally acting like himself again.

* * *


	14. so ashen white in paradise

The sunlight was thin, filtered through by dawn clouds. In the half-light Mamoru looked grey and shining, like he was made of stone, he wore an ash grey colour similar to the colour of morning and his dark hair was shining. In comparison Heero looked small and thin, he struck Duo as looking like Mamoru must have at that age, before the years had made him broad and hard. They stood in similar poses, but where Mamoru carried his sword pointed to the left, Heero's was pointed to the right and they were circling, watching, learning the other's pacing. Tobin put his arms around Duo's shoulders as he watched; this would not be a quick spar like he and Mamoru had shared. This would be a match, not of equals, but easily of masters. Heero learned so quickly that even now, less than a week since he had come to Dathyl he was competent and confident with the blade.

"How long did he last the last time?" Adam asked from the side, arranging the heavy bear skin around Duo's shoulders, although they couldn't make him stay in bed they did baby him and keep him warm.

"Twenty one minutes." Tobin answered, "which is longer than anyone else has in years." Duo pushed his elbow into Tobin's ribs hard with a murmur to be quiet.

Mamoru had seen an opening, and took it; rather than bring his sword up in the arc he had taught Heero as an opening move, and he brought the hilt of the sword up in a disembowelling move than Heero blocked easily. Their eyes were on each other and not the swords. In the distance there was a rumble of thunder and a few heavy splats of rain began to fall on the palace's paved courtyard. As Heero blocked the sword strike he stepped back out of the range of Mamoru' feet and in a move that caused Tobin to whisper Seraphim he slammed his forearm into Mamoru' sword hand. Mamoru took that as an opportunity to bring his blade up to Heero's throat, where it was blocked by his own sword. Mamoru widened his eyes slightly as the rain began to pelt down on the pair, slicking their clothes to their skin. The boy might not have been an equal match to Mamoru, but he was talented.

Mamoru made his mind up and stopped holding back, Tobin hissed through his teeth seeing the slight change in posture, so far Heero had matched him, or he had matched Heero, now it seemed the boy would end up on his back in the dirt the way that the rest of them did. Mamoru moved like lightning, flashing back and forth in the rain and suddenly rather than predicting and acting against Mamoru' movements Heero was forced to react. He was still coping though, much longer than anyone else had when they fought Mamoru. The boy had obviously never fought anyone like this before, and it must have lasted ten minutes before Mamoru held the sword point to Heero's throat, Heero's sword in the fabric at Mamoru' waist. "Concede."

"I concede." Heero said lowering his sword at last, Mamoru sheathed Ran in a single gesture and then bowed. "You are amazing." He said with a trace of awe in his voice.

"Thank you," Mamoru sounded cold at that. "I have a gift for you, Heero, for learning so quickly."

"I must learn to help Duo." Heero answered stiffly, "it is of no matter to me to give me gifts. I am his Senshisha and I must learn the weapons of this place to protect him as is my duty."

"Nonetheless," Mamoru said, walking across to where Duo sat with Tobin and Adam, and took from beside them a wooden box, "such gifts are necessary when one's pupil reaches a certain stage of development."

Almost reluctantly Heero opened the proffered box and removed from it a broadsword and sheathe. The sheathe, or saya, was enamelled in a lacquer the colour of Duo's eyes and Duo's eyes bulged when he saw it. In a smooth clear motion Heero drew the blade free and ran his finger down the engraving underneath the hilt. "_Fushi no saiai_." He said aloud.

"Immortal beloved." Adam whispered behind them, "a fitting name for a sword."

"I think someone's trying to tell you two something." Tobin added with a laugh, "but that is a pretty sword, hey, Mamoru," he called out, "that sword's nicer than the one you gave me."

"The one I gave you is nearly a thousand years old and had served many a Senshisha, I had this one specifically made for Heero as there was no other available. He will be asked to show his sword to the empress when he makes his vow therefore he needed a sword. I did consider asking you to lend him yours."

Tobin went pale, "I would never give it up, you know that, you gave me that sword to protect me after," he paused, "after Dramathen."

"Hence I had another sword made for Master Heero." Mamoru answered stiffly.

"Can I play?" Duo asked.

Tobin nodded and bowed to Mamoru signalling that he was really not in the mood for the all out battle that Mamoru wanted and was hinting at. "Do you have a weapon?" Mamoru asked, Duo looked at Adam who handed him his sword. "Then we will begin. Have you had any formal instruction?" Duo shook his head. "that much was obvious from the way you hold the blade. Point the tip low, holding it high means you use more energy maintaining pose than attacking," his voice was almost numb as he spoke, "your motions should be fluid, like grass on the wind." Behind him Tobin was mouthing the same words, "to be successful in battle, you should be like water, it finds the path of least resistance, and, Tobin, I know perfectly well what you're doing behind my back, find yourself something more practical to do."

"Yes, Mamoru," Tobin said taking a brush out of the saddlebags and muttering under his breath, then he laughed, "I haven't done that since I was a boy," he said, looking at Mamoru.

"And I remember when you did that the first time around." Mamoru said dryly. "Now watch, Duo, think of water when you attack. Water can shift stones and wear away mountains, ice destroys and cherishes, nothing stands in the way of water. Now watch," he brought his sword up in a graceful arc that would have cut Duo in two, "now replicate it," Duo tried to, and Mamoru with barely moving blocked it, "and again," he shifted slightly, sliding Adam's sword against Mamoru's broadsword, who brought his sword up to bring the blade away from him and turned so Duo's blade was brought against himself. "Did you see what I did?" Duo nodded, "now let's try it again." Duo took a step back as he brought the blade up from his knees, forcing Mamoru to turn his sword to block the blow, then without warning, Mamoru drove his shoulder into Duo knocking him flying unto his back.

Josian shook his head at Heero as he went to interfere. He settled back down to watch.

"Watch me, not the sword." Mamoru barked. "the sword can be in either hand, it is just an extension of my arm. I am the weapon, not the sword. Try again." Duo kept his eyes on Mamoru this time, who blocked his attack, as Duo stepped out of the way of a shoulder nudge, tripped over his outstretched leg and fell again.

"Duo," Tobin said, "if it makes you feel any better, you're doing better than I did the first time."

"Again!" Duo said standing up. His face was a mask of fury and the air around him crackled with fiery sparks.

"As you wish." Mamoru said, "I am quite content to knock you down all day."

"We'll see about that. Don't hold back."

Mamoru raised an eyebrow that Duo had even noticed that. "As you wish," he said, and in a flurry of blows Duo could barely see to block he was flat on his back with a sword point to his throat and a foot on his chest. "Just because a katana is designed to slash doesn't mean it can't thrust, you are less exercise than Mina, perhaps the two of you should spar in future."

"I will defeat you," Duo said and the air around them grew hot, a single drop of blood fell from Duo's nose for him to wipe away angrily.

"Not in that temper," Tobin said, "calm down, watch him, not the sword, try to predict what he's going to do, where he's going to be. Now count to ten," Duo snarled out the numbers, calming as he went through the upper register, "now try again."

"You sound like him," Heero protested.

"I trained him," Mamoru said, "and if Duo shows that he can control his temper I will train him, just as I train Heero."

Duo bowed his head and then he brought the sword up, and rather than allowing Mamoru to block it, he stepped back bringing the sword within the radius of Mamoru' face, he was forced to bring his forearm up to protect his eyes, but it was not enough to stop him kicking out and sending Duo sprawling. "Much better," he said, "but remember, I am the weapon, not the sword."

"Maybe he's not suited to the sword." Josian ventured, Mamoru shot him a dark look. "Well, it's true, not everyone works as well with the sword, he disarmed Tobin with a pair of knives, maybe he's just not a swordsman."

"A Dathylian sentiment." Mamoru snarled. "Would you be happier, Duo, if you used your knives?" Duo nodded, throwing the sword away and pulling two long knives from hidden sheathes at his boots. "then let's begin."

Tobin put his hand on Heero's chest, "even in the mood that he's in he won't hurt him, just watch."

It was over before it had begun, Duo was quick but the length of the broadsword had meant that although his manoeuvre to slit Mamoru's throat was successful the sword had gone through his jacket, if it had have been a battle, they would have both ended up dead. Nevertheless Mamoru bowed to his opponent, "that is called sheathing the sword, Duo," he said quietly, "and must never be attempted, the cost is often too high." And Duo took note of the words, often, but not always.

* * *

Later Duo sat having his long hair brushed by Otonna who seemed to have taken over as their primary maid. "You did well against Lord Mamoru," Otonna said, "the entire palace is abuzz with it, it's the closest someone's got to him with a knife in twenty years."

"It took seconds." Duo said sadly.

"There's no shame in that," Otonna said, "Lord Mamoru is the champion of the Lady of Meirin, he is a paragon among Senshi, no one's beaten him in a fight in twenty years, I've seen some of the greatest swordsmen defeated in minutes and never even draw blood on him, you had a knife to his throat."

"Otonna," Duo said turning around, "I know you're trying to make me feel better but it's not working. He beat me, fair and square."

"From where I was sitting it was a draw." Heero said. "He killed you at the same time you killed him. Otonna," he turned his attention to the maid, "will you show me how to do that?"

"What fight with knives?" She laughed, "you need to speak to Prima about that." Even Duo laughed.

"No," Heero said missing the joke, "to braid his hair, I would like to learn."

Otonna's smile was fond. "Duo, do you mind?"

"No, of course not." He said. "It's always a pain to start and I trust Heero with my hair."

Heero moved to stand beside the maid, but she handed him the brush, "now separate it into three strands," with her watching he did as she said, "now you need to pick them all up without mixing them up, like this," she arranged his hands for him, "now the braiding is the easiest bit, it's just one over one under, like this," she moved his hand braiding the hair, "now you finish."

It took much longer for him to braid it than he had seen Duo and Otonna manage it, and when he was done it was straggly and rough. He was just about to undo it when Otonna stopped him. "It's very good for a first time, isn't it, Duo?"

"Much better than mine." Duo said with a winning smile, he could see just how nervous about it that Heero was, "shall we try again, I've got nothing on my itinerary this afternoon, have you, Otonna?"

"No, master Duo, and seeing as he's doing such a good job, how about he does mine next?" She reached up to undo her wimple.

"I don't know." Heero said looking worried.

"Don't worry about, think of it as really great practise for braiding Princess Relena's hair." Duo's tone was pleasant and teasing.

"I have no intention of now or ever braiding her hair." Heero said stiffly, "baka." And Heero remembered what Mina had said, that when he called Duo baka he was really saying something else, and for the first time, he knew it was true.


	15. dream a little dream of me

That night Duo dreamt. In the dream he stood in the ruins of an ancient city devoured by a forest he had no name for. Tree roots and grass had thrown up the paving of the path. Vines had split open the walls of the stone houses and branches poked through glass windows. Algae or moss obscured statues and carvings lichen. Although the houses were built in a Japanese style they were built of stone, the storm shutters were copper long since rusted through, and the screens were glass. This city had been beautiful once, and although greatly altered by the Forest it was still beautiful just in a very different way, and he knew with the terrible clarity one has in dreams that it was Forest not forest. This Forest felt threatening but oddly, as if it was trying not to be, as if it was trying to slough years of violence for him, and only for him. That was clear in the odd clarity of dreams. The Forest was alive and conscious, and it was as if it was trying it's very best to welcome him, but couldn't really remember how.

A fountain spewed water from a woman's head, and there was a triangular symbol half broken off on her forehead. Her jaw was missing but the water still spilled over her perfect hands as if she tried to stop it or catch it. It seemed to vomit water, as it was an uneven and sporadic stream over her hands, where the plumbing was failing. Her breast hands were stained green from the constant flood, but her marble head was a spoiled by moss, although that is reddish day in around her mouth iron in the water. It seemed that violence, more than neglect, had smashed in the back of the head and ripped away her jaw. There was a window of coloured glass looked over the plaza, but here and there the panes had fallen from the putty. The walkways had shed their paving stones in favour of grass and wild herbs, so they stood upright here and there like gravestones.

He walked over to the orchard; it was vastly overgrown. The branches tumbled into each other and clawed into each other's growth, so one tree seemed to grow both lemons and pears. There was a fig tree half strangled with choke weeds, the fruit was unripe and unfit to eat. All over the grass, underneath it there was fruit, the windfall of many trees left to ruin, the cherry tree stood alone, out of the reach of you the trees. Its roots had lifted the circle of paving stones that surrounded it, and its branches were smothered in its blowsy blossoms that were a bright dark pink.

One of the paths was lined with yellow roses and it was cleared to show him the way. Although the city had obviously been abandoned for centuries someone or something had pruned the roses. Duo was not in any way afraid. Not here, not in this place.

He walked along the rose lined path, his fingers brushing the smooth surface of the blowsy flowers. At the end of the path was a staircase that seemed to climb to the heavens, the stairs fixed into the hill with wooden beams and huge oak trees tied with ofuda prayers lined the path. Knowing what was necessary of him, he climbed the stairs.

He climbed for a while, enjoying the smells and odd light of the Forest when an old woman in a black shawl stopped him. She was spinning thread between her forefinger and thumb with spittle. "A long way from home, dearie," she said and she seemed to speak in many languages instantly but he understood them all. "You must have come a long way to be here in the Forest."

"I dream," he told her, "my body lies sleeping in the Halcyon palace."

She made an understanding noise, even further from home that I thought you were. Be careful to follow your thread back, or you'll be lost here amongst the ghosts and the roses. You take care now, dearie," she lifted the ball of unspun thread and began to descend the stairs into the dream twilight.

"Thank you. Obaasan," he said to her back, calling her grandmother, though he didn't know if she's been as kind as she seemed. He continued to climb.

After a while he came across a second woman on the steps. She was matronly with thick brown hair tied up in a loose knot, and she was knitting. "Why hello, young man," she said adding a cable needle to her wool and click clacking as she sat on the step and looked at him. "It must be pressing business to have brought you to the Forest."

"I dreaming, Obasan," he said calling her aunt, "I'm coming here in a dream because this was the path I was shown."

She looked at him clearly, then held up her knitting, "this will fit you, lad, and protect you on the way, just mind you remember the kind lady that gave you it."

"Thank you, obasan," he said taking the sweater she had given him.

She stood up and dusted herself down, "now mind how you go." She, like the old woman before her, descended the stairs.

By the time he reached the maiden he was expecting her. She was practicing with a long black sword, dancing back and forth as if fighting off unseen opponents. "You're not supposed to be here." She said, sheathing the sword at her hip. She wore a leather kirtle and a leather brassiere with chain mail hanging from it. Unlike the other women she was a warrior.

"I dream, onesan," he said calling her sister, "I go only where my dreams lead me."

"Don't put such stock in dreams," she said, "dreams are the tool of the enemy. Dreams betray." She said.

"The dream brought me here and I must climb on." He told her, "though I do listen to your words, onesan."

"If the Forest welcomes you then so must I," she said, "but it asks more than you can give. It is what it does. All our gifts are double edged, and we don't give you what you want," she clearly eyed the sweater that the matron had given him, "we give you what you need. Go on, Duo, but be warned." Then she was gone before he asked her how she knew his name, and she didn't descend like the others, but between one blink and the next she had vanished.

Duo took the last few steps up to a small temple under a wooden arch. A woman all in white sat in a pool of moonlight, even her hair and her skin were white, and there was a cloth over her eyes. "so have you chosen?" She asked. In the eerie moonlight it seemed almost as if she was glowing, the intensity of her hurt Duo's eyes.

"I didn't know I had to choose." He said.

"You must choose," she said, "or all is lost."

"I don't understand," he argued, "what do I have to choose?"

"It doesn't matter," she said, "only that you make the choice."

"I can't choose if I don't know what the choice is."

"One or the other, it is irrelevant, just choose."

He woke up with a start and found himself sitting up in bed. Beside him Heero slept peacefully, he looked boyish, curled on his side. With a sigh and a determination to swallow the dream Duo lay down next to Heero and took a deep breath of his smell, soaking up the warmth that poured from him, it was almost palpable how much it soothed him, a smell of sweat and rose hips from his bath. In his sleep Heero nuzzled up against him and out his arm over Duo's hip pulling him close. Duo took the comfort as best he could, noting almost idly how it didn't make him uncomfortable and closed his eyes and waited for sleep.

The second dream disturbed him more than the first. He felt like a voyeur as he watched the scene unfold before him. It was strange because although he was watching it happen it was as if it was happening to him.

Tobin lay on the bed in the warm pool of sunlight with the heady comfort of one who should long since be about the day's chores, but his head was on Avili's knee and he was warm, comfortable and utterly content. She was twisting his hair into little curls around her fingers, but her hair was still up, worn up in the night's plait. He lay welled in the pillow of her lap, with his head resting on the taut fabric of her nightgown. Though it was long past noon neither of them had risen. When he worked in the opera Tobin had often lain late simply because he hadn't retired till after dawn, but even then his brothers would have had him up and at practise by now, it was almost time to retire again. Lying in the halo of her perfumed breath he had slept silently and peacefully, as had she, nestled together like cats they lay in her wide bed, and now he lay on her lap with his knees raised in the warm sunlight utterly content in a way he had not imagined possible for himself.

"This is utterly wicked" Avili said with a girlish chuckle"we both have things to do, we shouldn't just lie here."

"I'm not moving" he said"for anything short of the rapture or food."

"I don't know" she said"I bet I could make you move."

"Well, probably" he said with a smile"but I doubt I have any left in me, you've drained me absolutely and completely so very much I can't get out of bed."

She laughed"I like your eyes, they're so very pretty, I almost want to cut them out and put them in a jar, but I like the way you look at me."

He almost squirmed with embarrassment"I keep telling you, Lee, there's none left, I'm all done."

"I like your eyes is all" she said"they're so bright and glassy, like they were made outside your body and put there later. I wish I had your eyes, I'd be pretty with your eyes."

"Avili" he said, he rarely used her full name, he always called her Lee"you are the most beautiful woman I've ever seen, I still don't understand what you see in me, and I like not knowing. I like looking and you and imagining what it is that intrigues you so. Your eyes are so dark that they seem black and then when i get close I realise they're green too. I really love your eyes, so you can't have mine, because they are nothing but trouble."

"You have D'Cevni eyes" she said"there are legends about those with eyes that colour, that they were blessed by the goddess and that they excelled at all they attempted, do you think that that is true"

"You tell me" he said archly"do I excel at what i attempt"

"no" she said glibly"I broke you, I keep telling you, I break all my toys."

"You didn't break me" he enunciated the words carefully"you've just used up all your goes for the moment. Try again later and I'll tell you if I'm broken."

"Are you rationing it at the moment" She laughed"any body would think it was wartime." She reached down and kissed him slowly on the mouth"I think I could talk you round." Her laugh was low and husky.

"Well, probably" he said with a smirk.

"Do you love me" She asked.

"I thought we agreed never to use that word." He finally broke off the almost claustrophobic nature of her gaze, it was amazing how when she looked at him that he thought that he might drown. "Love is for other people, we don't need that distraction."

"Do you love me" She pressed"because I love you, I've loved you since I first knew you existed."

"I don't believe in love, I spent my entire life peddling love, love is a thing to convince people out of their money or their chastity, love isn't for you and me, please, don't ask me that again"

"You are my toy, I'll ask you what I want to." She said petulantly, he wondered if he'd hurt her. Sometimes the strangest things cut her to the quick"and you'll learn to give me answers I like better."

"I won't lie to you, Lee, I adore you, you take over my entire mind when I'm with you, but I don't believe in love, and I don't think you want me to say it when I don't mean it. You are my earth moon stars and sun, I belong to you and would even if you had not claimed me as your toy, but I don't love you." A single tear welled in her eye before it tipped out and ran along her cheek, almost like a traitor. Avili was not easily given to tears and it shocked him. "It's fine, Lee, I belong to you, remember."

"You silly goose" she said batting at his chest with his fists, angry and happy and sad all at once"I'll kill you, you know that don't you, I'm going to take you out and kill you slowly, because you make me so mad" she was smiling though"almost as much as you make me happy."

It was only when he woke he realised that he had seen someone else's memory, and he suspected it was Avili's, as if she had taken the chance of his dreaming to remember a time that was fonder, and it was a fond memory indeed. He looked at Heero's shoulder, they were curled together like cats, and wondered what it would be like to do that, to share a lazy afternoon with someone you loved so much you couldn't recognise the emotion as love.

Heero's heart beat was steady against his arm where his bicep was pressed against his chest. It was a sobering noise, and outside the window the sun was rising. Soon it would be time to get up and they would start their journey to the city of Dramathen for the day of the dead.

"Heero," he whispered, "Heero," he shook him gently. "Wake up."

Heero blearily blinked his eyes open, "Duo?" he asked. "Nightmare?" Untangling his limbs he flopped onto his back, "jus' a dream." He mumbled, not fully awake.

"Are you in love?" Duo asked, suddenly desperate to understand the question Tobin asked him, to feel what Avili had felt for the man she chose to share her world with. After seeing that he felt so totally lonely.

"Am soldier," Heero murmured, "not believe in love," he yawned, trying to wake up more, it was a measure of how much he trusted Duo that he slept that deeply beside him, "partners."

Duo rolled unto his back and stared at the canopy of the bed and resolved to think about what Heero had answered.

* * *


	16. Is this what it's like

Duo was sandy eyed and out of sorts when Primaverra brought them breakfast, he moved the sausage around the plate and barely ate, nursing his kir, and hissing when Heero tried to braid his hair. "Is something the matter?" Heero asked softly, unlacing the braid to do it again.

"Yeah, you're hurting me." Duo snarled.

"I think it is something else." Heero said softly. He had been as careful as he could not to pull on any of the delicate strands of hair, he had lifted the tangles and brushed them out so that they didn't pull on Duo's scalp.

"Shows what thought did, doesn't it?" Duo said snatching the brush away from him to braid his own hair as Prima frowned behind them clearing up the plates.

"Is this because you slept poorly?" Heero asked.

Duo started, he wasn't really sure that Heero had picked up on that, but it was clear that he had, Heero had slept like he had been decommissioned but he still noticed how badly that Duo slept. "No, Heero, it's not." He snapped.

"If we were not leaving for Dramathen I would recommend you returning to bed." Heero said, "you look poorly rested."

"Where do you get off?" Duo said turning to look at Heero with a rather fair approximation of Heero's death glare, "I'm fine, yes, I slept badly, but it doesn't matter, we're going to the Day of the Dead, and you can just live with it."

"Master Duo." Primaverra said, "master Heero has said nothing to have earned this temper."

Duo turned on the maid, "get out!" He yelled, "just get out, all of you, just leave me alone."

"Whatever is the reason for this temper, Duo, it is surely not Prima's fault, there is no reason for you to speak to her like that." Heero said, he was more baffled than annoyed however.

"Oh, and you're going to defend her, are you? That's always the way with you perfect soldiers isn't it, you defend everyone don't you, there's no such thing as exclusivity with you people." Duo was half stood with his fists balled at his side. "And you can shut up too," he said turning to his side and talking to the wall, "I don't care who you are, you have no bearing on this conversation at all, miss high and mighty."

"Prima," Heero said, "I think you need to get Minako-sama." He was measuring his words carefully, choosing them as best he could.

"Don't you get on your high horse with me, Miss Eluneth D'Cevni, princess of the fucking world." Duo told the wall. He was obviously getting more and more annoyed, Heero could tell by the pucker between his eyebrows.

"Now." Heero iterated.

Duo was making strange noises as he pulled faces at the wall. He stuck his tongue out at it, and then with an indignant laugh stuck his tongue out again and blew a raspberry.

* * *

Minako came at a run, she was wearing utilitarian riding clothes and had a veil over her hair, but when she saw Duo she relaxed a little. "Thank you for sending for me, Heero," she said.

"I don't care." Duo told the apparition, "it's none of your business, I don't care if he is your brother."

"Duo." Minako said, "Eluneth," she bowed her head to acknowledge the spectre, "I think you and me need to have a talk about picking fights with the dead."

"She started it." Duo protested gesturing with his thumb at the empty space.

"Nevertheless, Duo," Mina said softly, "it's not polite." She turned to Heero, "why don't you go see if the horses are ready, Duo and I will be down in a minute."

Heero met Adam on the stairs down to the corridor, "Master Adam," he said choosing his words carefully. "Who was Eluneth D'Cevni?" He decided it was not in his best interests to dawdle and just asked outright.

"She was Alister's sister," Adam said, blinking at shock at the question, in fact it was, to his knowledge, the first time Heero had spoken to him. "She died, like fifteen years ago, she fell from the battlements, why?"

"Duo was speaking to her," Heero said, "I wanted to know who she was."

"She was the most beautiful woman of her generation." A tall broad man said from behind them, he was wearing burnished leather armour and apart from his blue eyes he looked very like Tobin, more than Heero had expected. "She was my sister, she was mother to Tobin and favourite of the late queen. She was to marry Matherion D'Karioni and I think things might have been simpler if she had lived to see that destiny. I know Tobin would not be so wounded." He looked at Heero, "you must be the new Senshisha, I am Nathan, constable of Dathyl. I would say that it is an honour to make your acquaintance but I feel this meeting will be passing."

"So Eluneth is Tobin's sister?" There was an edge to Heero's voice that Nathan decided he didn't like.

"yes," he answered, "she was, before she died, am I to understand that she has chosen to speak to the new Lord of Meirin?"

"Yes," Heero said, "she was arguing with him."

"I will investigate it." Nathan said stiffly, turning to go back up the stairs.

"Nathan," Adam called, "she probably won't speak to you." He sounded forlorn, "she never has before."

"She's never spoken to anyone before." Nathan said turning, he was a bear of a man, "and she's my sister, damnit, why shouldn't she speak to me?"

"Because you need to let her go." Adam said, "she is dead. Lady Minako says that she is for the dead and not the living."

"Foolishness." Nathan snorted. "If I have to shake an answer out of him I will make this new Lord of Meirin make her talk to me."

"You will not." Heero said, "he is my responsibility and I will not have you abuse him thus." His tone was like someone sharpening metal.

"Nathan," Alister said, coming out of the doorway, "if Eluneth wanted to talk to us she would have by now." He put his hand on his brother's arm, "and you are nearly three times the size of the new Tennosha, and Minako-sama will return after the day of the dead." His voice was even and calm and brooked no argument, "you've waited fifteen years, you can wait another month to speak to her."

"But," Nathan protested.

"I miss her too." Alister said softly, it was the first time that Heero had seen the secretary show any emotion at all, "I miss her too."

* * *

Duo turned to Minako, "you stay out of this." He snapped turning back to the pale beauty that stood beside the mirror, she was remarkably haunting with delicate features and huge acid green eyes, she had the mouth of a goddess and her neck was like a pillar of ivory. "You don't know what you're talking about, ojou-sama." It was patently obvious that he used the title as an insult.

"You are talking out of your arse, Duo Maxwell." Eluneth replied putting her lily white hands on her slender hips, "now you go down those steps and you apologise to your Senshisha."

Minako swallowed her laughter at that.

"I will not." Duo said, "I was not out of order."

Eluneth's expression called him a liar, "you are proud, and you don't understand what you saw, what Avili showed you." She smoothed out the white folds of her dress, there was a blood stain on her shoulder, but other than that she was immaculate, her hair was a white blonde and she looked ethereal. Minako had always envied Eluneth her beauty, but there was a furrow between her brows and her mouth was tight. "You are as dense as a Seraphim," she said. Alister had once told Minako that Eluneth, for all her beauty, was not to be crossed and it seemed that she was seeing that first hand. "There is no talking to you, tennosha," she took a single step forward, stretching out the line of the nightgown she had died in, and then kissed Duo on the forehead, and with that she was gone.

"Is there something I should know?" Minako said, "you worried Heero, you know." She sat down on the edge of the bed and looked at Duo, he was irate, she could tell by the way he was twisting his braid in his hands, like he was wringing it out.

"He is an oblivious idiot." Duo snapped.

Minako burst out laughing. "Of course he is," she said. "He doesn't have half the advantages you have," there was a sparkle of laughter in her voice, "he can't see Eluneth for one, and you were arguing with her in front of him, I think he thought you were mad." She stood up and picked up the veil that they had given him to protect his hair from dust, stretching it between her hands.

"Mina, he's so dense."

"you're very alike," she said, binding up his hair, "you're both as bad as the other, now what is it that upset you?"

"Nothing." He snapped.

She gave him a knowing smile, then wrapped her arms about him, putting her chin on his shoulder, "tell me about your dream." She said, obviously pulling the information from the dead.

"I saw Avili and Tobin together." Duo said lowering his eyes, "and they were so in love and I wanted that, I don't want to be alone, Mina, so I asked Heero and he…"

"Adores you." Minako interrupted.

"No, he doesn't." Duo said sadly.

"Do you adore him?" Minako asked.

"I don't know." Duo said, "I don't know."

"then why take it out on him?" Minako said, pressing her cheek against his, "why take it out on Prima?"

"I," Duo started, "I," he stopped again, "I hate him."

"No you don't," Minako answered with a sigh, "you just don't understand, love is large and scary and terrifying and you have to be brave."

"Mina, is this like having a mother?"

Minako's lip quivered and wobbled, and her eyes watered and she kissed his cheek. "Thank you, Duo, thank you." He turned around and put his arms around her, burying his face in the crook of his neck. She accepted the embrace with good nature and then pulled back. "We have to go, or they will come looking for us, and this might be difficult to explain to Heero, don't you think, he takes protecting you very seriously."

"I don't need him to protect me." Duo said, pulling back and looking at her, her eyes were puffy where he had moved her.

"Yes, you do, maybe not from physical things, but there's a lot to be said for those who will never poison you with their dead," she said, offering him her hand to help him stand, "and he will protect you from others because you will never see his dead, when you wake from the dreams the dead show you he will be there for you."

"Like he was last night." Duo snapped.

"He was there, wasn't he?" Minako said softly. "Mamoru never is." She shrugged. She reached forward to kiss his forehead, "he is your rock, Duo, but you have to lean on him, you have to let him in."

Duo frowned. "I'll think about it."

She reached forward and hugged him again, "I'm moved that you think of me like your mother." She said softly, "you're the only one ever to tell me that."

"But you looked after so many children." Duo protested, the dead had shown him that.

"None of them thought of me as a mother," she said, "and I had no children." She frowned.

"I had no mother." Duo said, "I wish,"

She put her finger to his mouth, "don't say it, I'll tell you, someday, about your mother." She said softly, "and I'll tell you about Heero's mother, and I will tell you about mine, but Duo," she said with a very faint smile, "thank you."

* * *

Heero went up to where Tobin was checking his girth strap and pressed the muzzle of his gun against his back. "Leave Duo alone." He growled. Tobin turned, he didn't seem to show any fear of the gun at all where it was pressed against his ribcage where he had turned.

"I have no plans towards Duo," Tobin said, "it's only flirting." Although he didn't fear the gun he was watching Heero's hands intently. "I don't mean anything by it, but if he thinks I'm after him, I'll make it clear."

"Avoid him," Heero said stiffly. "Or I will kill you."

"You don't have to threaten him," Josian said from the side, "he'll make sure that Duo understands," he pushed the gun to the side, "on my word." He frowned at Tobin, "tart." He managed.

"Talk about the knife calling the axe sharp." Tobin answered, mock offended.

"Just leave him alone," Heero repeated, "I promised to protect him, and I will." He left the two of them arguing in his wake.


	17. Under E'berta

E'berta was a large manor house built into the side of a hill with sloping terraces that reached down to the valley floor to the east, at the bottom of the hill, stretching as far as the eye could see was a vast forest. After riding all day from Dathyl Heero was glad to see it, although he knew that Duo was fine in the carriage with Lady Minako, a carriage that had to be arranged at short notice when it became apparent that Duo couldn't ride, he wanted to see it for himself. He also hoped that whatever they had spoken about with Lord Terenz, who was going to E'berta anyway, that Duo was no longer in the foul temper he had been in before. He still was unsure why Duo had been so quick to anger, in fact he was unsure if it was something that Duo was awaiting an apology for.

A quick scan over the house revealed that it was well situated with very few strategic flaws, built as it was half way down the rather steep hill meant that it could not be approached from either side by unknown attackers, also by having exits to the ground on both the ground and third floors meant in the unlikely event of a fire there would be an easy escape, a fact made easier by two fights of stone steps. In fact the only query that he had was merely the number of entrances to the house on the ground floor, there were five that he could see, which would make it difficult to defend, but as he reminded himself, this was merely a villa and not a fortress, no matter how well situated, and they were only staying overnight.

Duo looked at the house with a look of wonder that caught Heero's breath in his throat. "ohmigod," he enthused, "it's beautiful, as those real grapes on the frame over the door," he touched the vine where it hung from the portico over the patio. "And, fuck," he swore, for the most part Heero had broken Duo of swearing, but when he got angry or very excited it sometimes slipped out, "a swing set, wow, how very good is that, buddy," he slapped Heero on the arm, "come on," he took Heero's arm, whatever anger there was between them had slipped away and he looked overjoyed, "I never got to go on one of these, come on."

"Want me to push?" Tobin said, appearing seemingly from nowhere.

"I will." Heero grated, he had his hand on his gun if it looked, for a single instant, that Tobin was not going to back away from Duo.

Tobin merely laughed, "and then you don't get to play, Jose, you push Duo and I'll push Heero. They've never been on swings before." The way Josian was stood suggested he would be much happier entering the house and availing himself of the bathing facilities.

"That is a tragedy," Josian said with a swallowed smile. "Fine, I'll push Duo." Heero looked at Josian as if weighing him up. "I know better," Josian said with a smile. "I'll keep my hands where you can see them."

With a cry of delight Duo sat on the seat of the swing and watched as Heero sat in the other, then with his hands flat on his back Tobin began to push, Josian grabbed the seat and pulled back, starting the swinging more violently than Tobin had.

Duo was laughing as he swung back and forth as Josian pushed him, "it's like flying." He said through laughter. "Come on, Heero, isn't this the greatest?"

And apart from the cold hands that pushed at his back Heero was forced to agree.

* * *

From the balcony over the portico Minako watched the two boys playing on the swing set and smiled to herself. "See, Mamoru," she said to the shadowy figure that stood behind her, "for all their bluster and maturity, at the heart of it, they are still children."

Duo's braid was snaking out behind him, and Heero's eyes were fixed on Duo. He was smiling, as Duo laughed and laughed.

"Our son would have been their age if he had have lived." Minako said sadly and finally lowered her eyes.

Mamoru put his hand on her shoulder, for as much as he hated her he could offer her comfort. "Will you tell them?" He asked.

She shook her head. "It will be time enough for them to learn on their own, lets give them a little happiness," she turned around and laid her head on his chest. Sometimes, just sometimes, for all his cruelty, he could be kind to her. He closed his arms around her. "It was more than anyone ever gave us."

"Are you sure that he's the one?" Mamoru said, laying his cheek against the top of her head, she smelt sweetly of rose petals.

"He is a lord of Meirin, the prophecy is specific, there has never been a lord of Meirin, the gift is female to balance life and death, without balance he must be the A'setra, the one to whom death is no barrier." She sounded as if she would weep. "The one to save or damn the world."

"He might just be a demon from the aether." Mamoru said, "we know nothing of his world, it might be a natural thing in his world."

"I am the last." Minako said sadly, "and I cannot have children, the hope of Meirin dies with me. That boy is either a demon, or the damnation of the world."

"Then tell him." Mamoru said.

"He is happy." She said, "if he is the A'setra, he will destroy the world, the dead will rise and the Lord of Meirin will become the Lord of Death, any son born to the house of Meirin has been killed since the dawn of time. If he is the A'setra his Senshisha will have to kill him."

"He is a sweet lad." Mamoru said ruefully. "It will be a shame," he took a deep breath, "though if he is the A'setra he will not stay dead."

"And if he isn't then he will stay as dead as our son."

* * *

Duo reached across and slapped Heero on the thigh, "tag, you're it," he said and jumped off the swing at full height. He hit the ground in a forward roll and was already sprinting when Heero reacted enough to jump after him. Although the drop wasn't very high, only six feet or so, the momentum meant that when he hit the ground he stumbled.

"I'll get you for that, Maxwell." He said, charging after Duo. Although Heero was physically stronger than Duo he was programmed into choosing his fight reflex over flight, where Duo was the opposite, and he was fast. With a laugh, he swung on a metal gate that was fixed in the side of the hill and into the room beyond. Heero was only a few steps behind, close enough that he stopped when Duo did.

The cave was a mausoleum, and it was well lit. A grate in the ceiling revealed a lake of sunlight that bounced off mirrors around the room, and from the grate was also an iron chandelier that was rich in torches and candles. It was the most unusual room that either Heero or Duo had ever seen. The walls were lined with shelves covered by marble plaques explaining the names and brief details of the lives of the occupant. What was unusual was the catafalques that surrounded the room. Catafalques generally lay on biers to remind the living what the dead had looked like, and for the most part were either austere or sleeping. The catafalques of E'berta were standing, and in some cases, dancing.

It was obvious it was the dead of many generations because of the changing clothing and statuary styles. Women sometimes carried their babies. Some men had dogs curled around their heels. One little girl was kneeling with a stone puppy that she offered stone treats to. One man had a violin to his chin. In the corner a man had a woman against the wall with her skirts up around her waist. It looked for all the world as if they would, at any moment, burst into life. Duo walked into the room and then stopped after a few steps and took Heero's hand, wanting to explore, but for Heero to explore with him.

"What do you think this place is?" Heero asked.

"It's a tomb." Duo said with wonder listening to the chattering of the dead around him, "it's where they buried all but their emperors, E'berta has always been a D'Cevni place and they are ancient."

"This is Alister's place?" Heero asked, Alister was the lord secretary, and as far as he could tell the eldest of the D'Cevni.

"No," Duo said, cocking his head to listen better, "it's Tobin's." Then an impish smile spread across his face. "Hee-chan," his voice dipped low as he said it, "would you like to see Eluneth?"

Heero didn't have to think of an answer, "yes," he said, "I would like that very much."

When Duo turned to smile at him Heero was caught by just how close Duo was, and how easy it would be to lean forward and kiss him.

"Here you are." Adam said from behind them, causing Duo to jump in the air "Josian said that he thought he saw you go in here." He took a long look around himself, "you know, I never get used to this."

"Who are they?" Duo asked. "Show us Eluneth."

"What is all this fascination you two have with Eluneth?" Adam asked, moving through the statues with the grace of a dancer. "He's asking me all about her and now you're asking me to reveal her." He looked back at them, "are you coming?"

Eluneth, it seemed, was right at the back of the room, making a daisy chain with marble daisies, there were several threaded through her hair. She was laughing. "That," Adam said proudly, "was Eluneth D'Cevni, before her suicide, she was the most beautiful girl in the kingdom."

"Not suicide," Duo muttered, noting just how much the statue actually looked like Eluneth as the dead told him about death masks and measurements. "Murdered."

"well," Adam said, "you'll have to talk to Alister about that when you get back, he always said it was an accident. Well, come on, you two, Arian and Breda have made us supper and if you want a bath before bed then you'll have to hurry. We have an early start in the morning."

"Why don't we go through the forest?" Heero asked.

Duo was driven to his knees by the cacophony of voices all telling him not to. Heero looked down at him as he smiled up weakly, "just a headache," he said. It was true, the constant chattering of the dead was giving him a headache.

"That's not any forest." Adam said as they reached the gate and the sunlight beyond, "that's the Termigent where the world was born and will die. It's haunted. Do not, for any circumstance, ever, ever, ever, go into the forest."

The sunlight seemed to, for the most part, appease the dead, who settled down to a dull murmur. "Don't go to the forest, gotcha."

"Just that forest," Adam repeated as they went back up the hill to the manse, "if the wildings don't kill you then the trees will."

Heero snorted in derision.

"It's true." Minako said quietly. "The forest is haunted, the trees will rip you limb from limb and if they do not then Vivika will have you. Promise me, both of you, not to go into the forest."

They promised although she knew that neither of them believed her, strangers to Dathyl never believed about the forest until they saw it for themselves, she hoped they never would.

"If you break her promise I will make you wish the forest had got you." Mamoru said dryly. "It is a dark place filled with the damned, those driven out from the rest of the world, and the trees remember."

"now if we're finished with the threats, this feast looks wonderful as always," Tobin said changing the subject deftly.

"Arian, Breda, you have excelled yourself, is this real goose liver pate?" Josian said, complimenting the two servants where they stood by the door.

Duo looked down at the spread of food, the hot slices of beef and pork, the pot of pate and the thick viscous gravy. "I think I'm going to be sick." He excused himself, leaving the dining room at a run back outside where he noisily vomited, Heero close behind him.

Mamoru looked at Minako who would not meet his gaze.

"Are you all right?" Heero asked, rubbing Duo on the back.

"The meat." He answered, "I didn't see it as meat, I saw it as quivering lumps of flesh and gristle," he could feel the bile rising in his throat again, "and I knew if I ate it…" he was cut off as he vomited again.

"Shush," Heero said, kneeling beside him, holding his braid in one hand and rubbing his back with the other. "I think your gift has just made you a vegetarian." He said.

* * *


	18. The Empress of the Court of Winds

The city of Dramathen Heero found ugly but oddly soothing as if the city was designed to bring a sense of peace to those who visited it. It was a city of wide avenues and sprawling boulevards, of fountains and parks, and polished wood verandas on which women sat wearing veils and sipping cold drinks in the summer heat surrounded the low slung houses. A few men and women braved the hot streets under parasols high over the solid mud streets on sandals. He wiped the sweat on his forehead angrily with a sleeve. In Dathyl there was always a cool breeze from the sea, or a cold wind in winter. Dramathen was stifling, and the people wore a thin unlined silk that was almost see-through but he was from Dathyl and they did not dress so lightly. He wore a stout wool coat and tried to ignore the trickle of sweat than ran down between his shoulder blades and left a damp patch at the small of his back. Shifting uncomfortably on his horse he tried to ignore the sensation that he had soiled himself where the sweat had soaked through his underclothes.

Loping in front of him, like a big cat, was the Senshi Fiore, who had met them at the gates to guide them to the Dairai. He had white hair and he didn't look as if the heat affected him. He had plenty of flattery for Duo, and he spoke in unaccented Dathylian but he was never less than formal with Heero. He had the impression, from the way Duo had laughed at his words that he was teasing him. When he had approached them Heero had assumed, because of the colour of his hair, that he was an old man, but he was no older than Mamoru. "Perhaps, sir, we would prefer to walk the remaining distance, as it is not far at all," Fiore said softly, "and it would mean that my Senshi could water your horses before they are stabled. They are almost sweating up a lather in this heat." Heero looked for the barb before he slipped from the saddle, "I would not have the emperor say I maltreated your horses when you each have a pair of perfectly good feet." Heero waited for it, the sly aside that would cause Duo and Minako to cackle with laughter, but it didn't come. Before he could continue someone else spoke.

"Fiore-Senshi," the woman said stepping out from between two trees, at her heels was a small child, little more than a baby. Her voice was quietly deferential and her hair was a pale platinum blonde that looked like spun lamplight in a braid like a rope down her back. She wore an unlined obebe embroidered with silver thread in delicate starbursts. She looked like a merchant's wife walking her child. She was, Heero also noticed, the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She was almost arrogantly beautiful with the perfection of her features. "It is fortuitous that I met with you." She wore no jewels or cosmetics that he could see, but her hair and her eyes that were the colour of pansies, and her skin was the colour of wintry cream. "Will you escort me back to the Dairai, I fear I have lost my way." When she spoke she made the language sound like the babbling of a small stream over rocks, full of soft liquid syllables and sharp vowel sounds. The child at her heels was tugging her hand with one hand, eager to be on, and the other held a candy cane to his mouth.

"Daiyamondo- Khatha." He said simply, "It will be my honour to guide my lady." Yet Heero couldn't miss how soft Fiore's eyes became as he looked at her even as he registered the name, Diamond, the first of the Jeseul, the greatest Hentai in the world, the Khatha, the fair one. A woman whose beauty was as famous as her wit. Minako and Duo had spent hours talking of her with some kind of reverence and Heero had listened as he and Mamoru practised their arms. It was said she could destroy a man as easily with a glance as with a quip. He had not expected to see her in all the time he was in Dramathen; such was her fame. Fiore bent down and picked up the child who was contentedly fixed on his candy, "It will be an honour to guide you too, little Senshi." The child was, Heero noticed, dressed like a Senshi. He was thanked with a sticky smile.

The Dairai of Dramathen was a giant house of sliding panels built around a central courtyard through which women glided and men loped. When they entered they were greeted at the door, as they removed their shoes, by a woman in a formal black obebe embossed on the back with the golden crest of the D'Cevni and it fell in a pool behind her. A golden crown rose from the back of her neck and around which her hair was wrapped. "I am Takajo, Joshu of this place. I am here to lead you to the apartments prepared for your arrival. Baths have been drawn. Minako-sama," she acknowledged her with a bow of the head, "her majesty has asked that you attend her immediately. Fiore-Senshi, if you will, it is time for Master Genji to bath and bed."

"Kuso," Genji swore clearly and Fiore flinched. "Don't wanna."

"I'll take him," a woman in a grey cotton obebe said coming forward, woven into the fabric was the D'Cevni crest, so this woman, Heero noted, was a servant. "Come on, baby," she said taking him with competent arms.

"Kaasan!" He protested, "Don't wanna."

"If you're good and have a bath I'll tell you a story." The woman in grey said shifting him in her arms, she was a small woman and he was a large baby, large enough to walk on his own.

"Kakkoii," he said. "A good story," he added. "Then bath then bed."

"No, baby," she corrected tapping him on the nose with a finger. "Bath then bed then story."

"Iie," he protested, swearing, but Alister knew this woman wouldn't be thwarted as she carried him away.

"What does Kaasan mean, Takajo-Joshu?" Duo asked. It surprised Heero that he guessed correctly which honorific was attached to her name.

"How would you say?" She began, pausing to look for the word.

"Asami is Genji's nurse," Diamond interrupted, "but the empress' son, as such we are all his parents." Her voice was low and soft, "Kaasan means mummy, I think you would say it." There was a catch in her voice, something that sounded, to Heero, like longing. "He calls us all Okasan but she is Kaasan."

Heero watched Duo reach back and squeeze Minako's hand in a gesture of comfort. It seemed that she was grateful for it.

* * *

Duo looked at the small woman sitting in the sea of red silk with something of a shock, she looked like Tobin. Her face was laid out in the same manner, her hair was the same almost silky black, though hers was long and held back in an intricate maze of ribbons, but staring back at him, framed by lashes thickened with kohl were the same acid green eyes, they were the exact same shape and as hard as Tobin's. Teishi, the empress of Darie, looked so like Tobin could have walked the boards as Onestra in his place and no one would have questioned.

He was so surprised he forgot to bow until a spear butt took him in the back of the knee forcing him to his face in front of her.

"Farore, iie." the empress said from a mouth with almost perfect rouge. Her skin was whitened, her eyes and cheeks darkened and her lips painted bright scarlet, she looked like a porcelain doll. "These are our honoured guests, but the barbarians of the south not know the way of the court of winds. Please, Minako-sama, sit." Duo was surprised as he tried to compose himself just how clearly he understood the empress of Darie when she spoke only in Darin.

Minako knelt down in a surprisingly graceful gesture on the cushion before her, "By your leave, Heika." She said bowing her head, Minako didn't bow to anyone and Duo wasn't sure he liked it. Minako was as proud as a castle, she did not lightly bow her head.

"You have picked a prize plum, Mina," the empress said and Duo, despite himself blushed, he knelt slightly behind Avili in a position of subservience, she had told him as they travelled here that pomp was essential in Dramathen, that one had to obey the forms even if one found them silly or antiquated. Position mattered in Darie, which meant it was obsessively ritualised, and he didn't mind sitting behind her, it meant that the empress's gaze.

"Adam D'Cevni gave him to me, he called him from the aether and he was so pretty, heika, I just had to keep him."

In her nest of fabric the empress stirred, slightly, causing waves to ripple through the scarlet and gold silk, she reached forward and lifted a small porcelain bowl that was painted with small blue darts and with both hands brought it to her mouth, turning it with one, as the other held it and sipped the contents with real pleasure. "You are blessed indeed, Minako, that you are not cursed with a husband who would take displeasure at such an action."

Minako laughed. "It has been long, heika, since your husband could command you at all, never forget that you are one of us, that you were D'Cevni before you came to the court of winds to claim your birthright."

Teishi tilted her porcelain head, with a small smile, all of a sudden the rich fabric around her might as well have been wound, oozing and seeping blood, and her perfectly painted mouth might as well have been a knife slash. "Correct, but even the empress sometimes must obey."

"Yes," Minako said sadly, "even the empress must sometimes obey." It was obviously something neither of them liked, "and sometimes even we must forsake our toys, Aeka asked me to recommend her to you, I had not realised that you were close."

"We were not," Teishi answered, "but we were allies when no one else was, though we both have husbands we rule our countries alone, sometimes that makes even the bitterest enemies bedmates. Come, Mina, you are welcome in my home, make free of all that you desire, and know there are pleasures in the court of winds that rival no other." She stood, her layers and layers of robes gathering about her like a cloud that swirled around her ankles, but to Duo's shock, her feet were completely bare. It was an instant and powerful reminder that under those billowing red robes that the empress of Darie, one of the most powerful women in the world, was completely naked. He shuffled his cushion slightly closer to Minako as surreptitiously as he could. "Let me abuse my power as empress and clothe your kitten in robes of finest silk so that when you touch him it will be as if through a veil of mist, how brilliant of you, Minako, to find a kitten so like as skittish as a mouse with eyes the colour of sunset."

Minakolaughed. "You may try to steal him, Heika, but he is trained now, he knows he belongs to me."

She put her face alongside Duo's, "are you sure I could not tempt you?"

"No, Heika," Minako said with feigned nonchalance, she had Duo by the hand now and was squeezing it as tight as she could. "He can see the dead, he is mine, Teishi," the name was used as a form of command, "and I will not share him or give him away."

"As you wish," Teishi said backing down in the face of someone she feared.

"As always I serve. But Minako, please tell me the name of this doll, that I might lament in private."

"His name is Shinigami no Duo Maxwell Tennosha," Minako said firmly, "but I call him Duo."

"Appropriate." The empress said, "and he has a Senshisha I trust."

"I do." Duo said, losing his temper with this strange and frightening woman.

"Has he performed the tasks?" Teishi asked. Minako shook her head. "Has me made the vow?" Minako shook her head again. "Then come daybreak he shall perform the Bav'ath'mordell'teraslyn. The twelve foremost warriors of the kingdom shall be assembled, and when the sun rises he will fight to the death for the honour. Then, if he is successful he can make the oath to me." She leered at Duo, "I hope you chose your Senshisha well," she said, "for they don't all survive the testing."

* * *


	19. Talking to Minako

"I suppose I owe you some sort of explanation." Minako said, kneeling before the small table. Sometime in their absence the table had been laid with many flavoured foods and sweet wines. "I asked her serene highness to submit Heero to the testing."

Duo slammed the sake cup he had lifted against the table where the contents spilled out. "What?" He asked.

"I asked her to submit Heero to the testing." Minako replied calmly. "I wanted him to be sure before we went to Meirin, before he was presented to the Aegis." She did not sound in any way sorry for what she had done. "The test will make sure of that. He has gone with Fiore, Josian and Tobin to the chapel of many colours where he will stand vigil."

"You've just given him a death sentence." Duo protested.

"The test," Minako explained with a smile, "is to appear for a brief wrestling match that the senshi will let him win. It's not the combat that's important, Duo, it's turning up to compete. All tonight the three of them will do their best to talk him out of it, they'll fill his head with all manner of tales about how terrible the combat is, how he's likely to die and he'll only succeed if he is the true Senshisha and if he's not how slow and painful his death will be. The point is if he truly wants to be your Senshisha they will not be able to put him off, and he will come back tomorrow morning and declare his intention to fight for you."

"And those huge Senshi outside will just let him win?" Duo asked, shocked.

She nodded with a smile. "Dramathen is a court of tradition and pomp, everything is highly steeped in ceremony, even what the empress said to you in there was all carefully prearranged. Heero will be fine, besides, Mamoru's trained him, he would succeed anyway."

"If a single hair on his head is harmed." Duo warned.

"Do you think we would do that to you?" Minako asked. "He is your Senshisha and it can be so difficult to break a new one in." She sounded flippant. "I just wanted you to know that he'll be fine so you don't spend the whole night fretting the way he will."

"You don't know Heero," Duo replied. "He will accept the challenge with good grace, admit that yes he is most likely to die but that he will take as many of them out as he can. He is a soldier, Minako, he doesn't play politics. He'll probably sleep better tonight than you will."

"That's not hard, Duo," she answered sadly, "I don't sleep very well anymore." She lifted a sake bowl and drained it in a single gulp. "He will be fine, there is nothing to worry about, the empress was taken with you." She said neatly changing the subject. "I was half expecting her to ask Fiore to have you changed into something more revealing."

"She's a little creepy." Duo admitted.

"Teishi?" Minako asked with a laugh. "She wouldn't hurt a fly, she learnt everything she knows from the Okiya mothers and Alister D'Cevni and most of that is bluster and bluff." She filled the bowl again, "she has played a bad hand very well, half of Dathyl believes she nearly started a war when all she did was survive a political turmoil."

"What happened?" Duo asked, lifting a slice of delicately cut peach with his chopsticks.

"Ah, that is for Tobin to tell you, but there was nearly war over it and Teishi ended up as absolute empress only weeks before her husband committed suicide to cleanse his dishonour." Minako's tone had lowered as she imparted that bit of news as if it was gossip.

"But she has babies." Duo protested. "and if she's an empress then surely she can't…" He left it open.

"Why ever not?" Minako asked, "she's an empress, no one will question her. Her right to the throne was as strong as her husband's, and she very nearly married Nathan D'Cevni."

"He's the big one isn't he?" Duo asked.

Minako nodded. "Yes, she nearly married him to consolidate her position. But decided against it, there was talk of her marrying Genji's father but then he died, rather suspiciously." She leant forward to say that bit and Duo was starting to suspect she was a little drunk. "Teishi can do anything she wants to, but marry for love. Everything she's done she's done for Darie." She sighed. "We are all women who have given our lives to duty, Teishi, Aeka and I, each of us has married where we were told for the good of our kingdoms." Duo was now sure she was drunk. "Teishi married a gross incompetent whose favouritism nearly shattered her empire, Aeka was married to a madman to save J'dan from the Garvem and I married a man with a heart of stone. Duo," she rocked back to look at him with eyes the colour of granite, "Heero will be a great Senshisha. His mother tells me that."

"Tell me about his mother, Mina." Duo said. "That I can tell him."

"She worked with machines," Minako answered dreamily, "they called her Spanners but her name was Mihana1, she loved him so much. She'd lie in her bunk with her hands on her belly and sing to him. She would have given him the world," her eyes were distant and fond, "she wanted to be a house mother, you know, baking pies and with a dog, but there was a war and she was needed. She always had grease on her face and the other machine men were kind of scared of her. She got sick and left the baby, he was about two then, with Odin because he loved her and she knew that he would take care of her baby. It was the hardest thing she ever did. But she knew if she didn't then no one would care and the Alliance would either put him in an orphanage or kill him. She wanted him to be safe and to know who she was. I wonder why Odin never told him."

She lay back on the mat, obviously very drunk. "Your mother was called Dixie," she said, "and she was devastated when you were stolen, she spent so long searching for you but she couldn't find you. They told her to give up searching, that you were dead and you weren't. she stopped eating." She added that matter of factly.

"What do you mean stolen?" Duo asked. "I was a street kid."

"You were a ransom," Minako said, "they were going to ransom you, but there was an accident, you were only three. The ship crashed and if they hadn't put you in a box then you would have died with them, you escaped to run the streets, with Solo. He loved you too, but it was years later that your mother gave up. They kept telling her, Dixie, give up, he's dead, but she didn't. She searched and searched and she loves you so much, she thinks you're beautiful." Minako took a deep sigh. "You are, Duo, you're beautiful. Even Heero's mother thinks so. You're a good match for him, because you're so pretty."

* * *


	20. The Chapel of Many colours

Heero looked at the small chapel critically before he dismounted the horse. It was well situated with it's back to a sheer rock face and water running to both the east and the west of the building. It was small though, but solid. "The Chapel of Many Colours." Tobin said, swinging down from his horse. "Probably the holiest spot in all Dramathen, even if it doesn't have an oculus." Heero ignored him. The other Senshi, the tall pale man that called himself Fiore said nothing, just raised an eyebrow as if in despair at that answer. Heero didn't know what an oculus was nor why it was so important. When Fiore, who had introduced himself as the captain of the Okiya guard, had explained that he was being taken to the chapel to maintain his vigil in preparation for the testing to make sure that he was the true Senshisha Heero had understood.

Often before missions he spent the time in what appeared to be quiet contemplation when in reality he ran over variables in the mission parameters over and again until he was sure that they were within an acceptable framework. It was something that he had worked harder at since he had met Duo. For some reason any variable that threatened Duo had to be eliminated. He hadn't been allowed to see Duo when he was taken from the city, but he felt secure that he had left him with Mamoru, who was thorough and would let no harm come to him. In fact Heero was sure that harm would come to Minako before it would come to Duo as Minako's heir.

A priestess in ash grey robes met them at the door, she bowed to all three, a slight inclination of the head that gave no admission of rank to any of them, she would have bowed the same to beggars. For no reason that Heero could see she reminded him of Noin.

With a gesture of her head she led them into the small chapel whilst Tobin wittered on in his ear about the history of the chapel and that it was used primarily for the manufacture of something called Meirin Blood Wine.

Like the mausoleum of E'berta this small chapel caught Heero unawares. It had a solid stone wall past the mahogany floor and screen partitions, and painted on it were small figures. "May I?" He asked looking at the mural. The priestess nodded and then stepped backwards acknowledging the request. She did not speak.

There were seven distinct paintings.

The first one showed a figure with a pair of golden wings holding a glass ball in one hand, but on the other side at his feet was a shattered globe.

The second image showed two winged figures battling with matching black swords. They were both aloft and they destroyed each other as behind them a forest burned.

The third picture showed a golden woman holding the glass sphere and a black sword, behind her there was a loom that had been shattered.

The fourth image was the winged figure helping someone out from a grave in a fabulous cathedral.

The fifth showed an image eerily like the fourth but the winged figure had clearly killed the body.

The sixth figure was unambiguous, it was a ship sailing with tattered sails and all aboard it the crew was dead.

The six images were strange but the seventh image chilled Heero to the bone. The winged figure was strangled by silver threads but the wings weren't his, a second figure was behind him with hair like golden fire and arms about his waist. One hand held aloft the silvery globe, the other globe had fallen almost carelessly, and around his neck was a torque, the mark of some kind of rank, but there were three shadowy figures at his feet. Both had the figure holding him wore imperial crowns. It was not that that had disturbed Heero, The man had only one wing, the other had the other wing, but both had lavender coloured eyes.

"What is this?" Heero asked the two Senshi. The room was surrounded by the pictures.

"This is the Chapel of Many Colours." A baritone voice said behind him, "and these are the A'setra prophecies of the Draima Rei." It was the Senshi Fiore who had answered him. Heero got the impression that it was these paintings that made the chapel as important as it was. He would spend the night in contemplation of them, not the battle he would fight the next day. The paintings were what was important, they referred to the Lord of Death. They referred to Duo in ways he didn't understand but he didn't like variables. Variables caused things to go wrong.

"Explain these to me." He said to the Senshi Fiore because he did not like nor trust Tobin despite everyone's counsel to the contrary.

"No one alive understands them, the Seraphim have theories, nothing more. The figure is the A'setra, the one to whom death will be no barrier and here," he pointed to the ghost ship, "is his army of the dead. The Lady of Meirin can speak to the dead, the A'setra will raise them. His flesh will be like water and he can control the flesh of others and he will not stay dead. He will save the world or damn it." Fiore's tone was even as if he was reciting scripture. "Because of it every male child born to the Lady of Meirin has been executed within days of it's birth." Heero took the information and savoured it. There were answers that he could divine on his own from such information.

"The ship is called the Perseverance." Tobin said, "Adam told me that, being a Seraphim Angel and all he's open to sensitive information that the Seraphim wouldn't share with the rest of us mere mortals. There are other versions of these prophecies about but these are the originals, Rei painted them herself. They call this one," he pointed to the last picture, "the one winged angel. As Fiore said the A'setra will either save or damn the world, though most of us wouldn't even notice the difference. It was to prevent the A'setra that the Seraphim was founded all those centuries before."

"Will they make a move against Duo?" Heero asked, willing to abandon his vigil as new information had come to light which made it seem riskier.

"In Dramathen no, not with so many Senshi present and especially this close to the Day of the Dead, and if they did," Fiore said, "there would be no mercy. The Seraphim walk a tenuous legality and their lord would not risk it when attacking them on the road could be that much more effective. Duo is safe in the Dairai or we would not have left him behind."

"Not that he could be with you on your vigil," Tobin said with a knowing smile, "now how are we going to do this, do you want to spend the night in prayer, practising with Fiore and me or in the bottom of a bottle?"

* * *

The sound of the violin music distracted Duo from the book he was staring at and pretending to read whilst he worked over scenarios where people could be killed in mock fights in his head.

Minako had retired to her bed in a fit of feminine weakness, as the Hentai called it, when really she had drank most of her own weight in sake and was now sleeping it off. The Hentai were sitting around the room engaged in specific tasks that were designed to waste time. Two of them were playing cards, a few were reading, one was sketching, Diamond was writing in a leather bound volume, Emerald was staring out of the window grating and at least three worked together on a large tapestry whose silk was spread over the floor. Opal was singing in the corner to entertain them, lightly plucking on the kouta, but the violin music wound its way through the room. Duo dropped his book, the music reminded him of Quatre who he was pretty sure he'd never see again, and the song was sweet and sad. He closed the book over, using one of the stray threads from the tapestry to mark his place although he doubted he'd lift the book again.

"Where are you going?" Diamond asked, closing her book over and hanging her brush from a small frame designed for it.

"I," he started, "the music, I wanted to learn who was playing."

"You are in our care." Diamond said quietly, "I will attend you, it grows late and I would like a turn about the veranda before supper. Give me a moment to alert the Senshi and I will walk with you."

Although it was phrased almost like a request there was no doubt that Duo was being given an order. Diamond was the first of the Hentai, the Khatha, and with Heero away on a vigil and Mamoru watching over Minako his care was left in their hands. Of course that made the strange assumption that Duo could not take care of himself. "Besides, Duo-sama, I like a walk about this time of evening and I do not always have a brave warrior to defend my honour."

Duo laughed, Diamond was fun like that. She was faintly teasing, but not enough to be insulting, and she was incredibly lovely with a mind that few would cross behind a pair of eyes the same colour as his own. From an attendant she took a heavy jacket and a veil which she arranged over her hair, "come, my brave champion, let us see who beguiles the hentai of the emperor with the sweet trilling of his violin." Smiling despite himself, still worried about Heero alone with a man he despised and a stranger, he offered the Khatha his arm.

In the centre of the Dairai was a series of formal gardens where small bushes gathered around artfully placed rocks and streams. It was heavily secluded and was obviously based on the cloisters of Halcyon. Sitting on one rock, like something from a mythology, wearing only a pair of linen shorts that ended above the knee and a head scarf despite the early evening chill, was the violinist. His head was lowered over the instrument and his eyes closed as he coaxed music from the strings.

Duo had watched Quatre play many times, it was something of precision and skill, Quatre played like he was ticking off the notes in his head, this man seemed to have no agenda when he played. The music poured from him and it was only when Diamond coughed that he even realised that they were there.

"Diamond-khatha." He acknowledged her with a low bow of the head as one would greet a queen. "I am honoured by your presence. Will you introduce me to the lovely lady beside you."

"My name's Duo." Duo grated, annoyed that he had been mistaken for a girl, "and I'm a boy," he said. "We heard you playing."

The sprite of a man smiled, but it was a private smile, "the song is called Setsunakutemo." He said, "the legend is that Imperator wrote it for his beloved wife, I think it's lovely." It was obvious that this man had played for himself. "I'm sorry, I'm being awfully rude, Duo-sama, not to introduce myself, I am Danan D'Karioni."

"The Seraphim adjutant in training." Diamond finished darkly. "You know better than to play such songs here."

"I was homesick." He answered, pulling the kerchief from his head to reveal loose black curls that framed his face delicately and reminded Duo of Tobin, "it is not a Seraphim song, it's from the Dathyl opera. I did a season there to practise my music, it is not a crime to play such a song, Diamond-khatha, it is not as if I played Acuya in her glory." There was a firm rebuke in what he said. "And I am only here for the Day Of The Dead, if my presence offends you so much then I will retire to my chambers and play there, but it was such a nice night."

"You play beautifully." Duo managed quietly. "What business does a Seraphim have with the day of the dead?"

"I play beautifully." Danan answered with a smirk that was eerily reminiscent of Tobin's, "the empress asked for the greatest musicians in Dathyl and she included me, I may be Seraphim," his expression was cold, "but I am still a violinist."

"You must watch your step in these gardens," Diamond said, "the empress gifted you with your violin and the steps are wet, it would not do to break it." Duo got the distinct impression that that was a threat. "Come along, Duo, there is statuary in the garden that I would like to show you." Duo didn't know who the man was other than he was Seraphim but he got the distinct impression that Diamond didn't like him.

* * *


	21. The Bav'ath'mordell'teraslyn

Duo sat on the veranda in front of the Dairai with a bored expression covered by a veil that no amount of threatening the Hentai had been able to divest him of. He sat amongst the most beautiful women in the empire with a mask that suggested he would be as happy sitting amongst swine. He wore a long black robe that was elaborately tooled in real gold and silver thread and his leather slippers were tied up his legs. He got the distinct impression he had been dressed for something specific. He was yet to see Heero.

They had cleared an area of the courtyard for the upcoming fight by removing the benches and now six of the largest men that Duo had ever seen were limbering up. He was assured that they had been told not to kill Heero but accidents happened and there man mountains, "they are the Kuroguma-Senshi." Diamond whispered at his side, she wore a shimmering white veil that fell to her feet and softened her pale beauty into a fair luminescence. Duo was certain that the black veil that they had put on him made him look more like a shadow. "The bear soldiers, they are chosen for their strength and their control. He will fight them first."

"Heero's a lot smaller than they are." Duo answered, "they'll break him by accident."

Diamond decided to ignore that. "After that he will fight those four," the four she gestured to were tall and thin women with muscles like whipcords, "the Naginata-Senshi." Duo didn't like the look of them, they looked dangerous. "Then he will fight two Ashigaru-Senshi." She finished. "They will let him win, but they will make him work for it."

"That's reassuring." Duo managed. He knew that Heero was a dangerous person, but these Senshi were trained killers, like Heero was, and they were all a lot bigger than he was.

Heero came out with both Fiore and Tobin to his sides, he wore only a pair of the wide pleated trousers and a scarf to keep his hair from his eyes. Both Fiore and Tobin wore robes like Duo's except theirs were red. They were presenting him to the empress. "This is the challenger, Yuy Heero," Tobin said, "As an imperial prince I offer myself as his second."

This too smacked of ritual.

Fiore raised his head. "This is the challenger, Yuy Heero," Fiore's tone was even, "as captain of the Okiya guard I offer myself as his second."

"Are the forms met?" The empress asked.

"The forms are met." Both men said together.

"The conditions are this, battle is to begin until either the challenger falls or none are left to challenge him. There is to be no blade, staff, sling or stone used." The empress turned her icy green eyes to Duo, "do you have something to say to your challenger?" She asked.

Duo thought about it for a moment and then as if the words had been given to him he said, "I believe in you." Tobin grinned at him as if he had said exactly the right thing, "and Tobin D'Cevni, if there is a single hair on his head hurt, I'll."

Tobin's grin just grew broader. "I knew you loved me." He said.

"Then, if all is agreed," the empress said her voice like a death knell, "let the Bav'ath'mordell'teraslyn begin."

"Hold." A man in a white jacket said stepping forward, emblazoned on the collar was a pair of wings. "Would you hold such a contest without Seraphim presence, heika?"

"Danan," Diamond hissed under her breath.

"The Bav'ath'mordell'teraslyn is a Seraphim contest, I must demand that you allow a single Seraphim to join the contest."

The empress thought about it, "are you so eager to fight, Lord D'Karioni," she said, he lowered his eyes under the weight of her gaze, "I thought not, who is your proxy."

"I am, majesty." A soldier behind him said.

"Yuy," she said turning to Heero, "I will give you a choice, you can fight the Senshi till they yield or you can fight the single seraphim to the death. I will not force your hand in either way."

Heero smiled, a slow cold slithering thing. "I will fight the Seraphim," he said. "Upon your command, heika."

"Then go with god, Yuy Heero." She lowered her head.

The Seraphim peeled off his jacket so that like Heero he was topless. "Welcome, Enamoured, I am sorry that I must kill you."

Heero said nothing, he reached around to his back where his gun was stowed and shot the man between both eyes. Then he turned to the empress and bowed.

"Blasphemy!" Danan shouted. "This is blasphemy, there are to be no weapons in the circle."

"No," Heero corrected, "I was not to use blade, staff, sling or stone, I used none of those, I used a small explosion to fire a blunt piece of lead into his brain, that is not prohibited by the rules of the circle." He said calmly. "Do you want to challenge me?"

"He is correct." The empress said, "we never said that he could not use his demon weapon, the kill is clean. Welcome, Senshisha, know that the throne of winds is humbled by your presence."

Duo wanted to snicker, it was just like Heero to find a way around the rules like that.

"This is blasphemy, he broke the rules of the challenge." Danan protested.

"No," the empress said standing in a rustle of silk so heavy it sounded like sparks, "he did not, the circle was not broken, none of the prohibited items were used, the kill was clean. He is Senshisha." Her voice was firm. "Come," she clapped her hands deciding to ignore Danan for now, "I imagine that you would like a bath, the ceremony of oath taking has to be prepared."

"I won't forget this, heika." Danan called.

"I would think less of you if you would, Seraphim. Run to Coresc and check the journals, you will find as I have that there was no blasphemy here." She said firmly, "now begone, and go with your heresy."

* * *


	22. Oathtaking and the day of the dead

The main hall of the Dairai was a dark and empty room swathed with pillars and lines of candles. In front of a statue of a golden goddess wearing a veil the empress knelt in front of a small table upon which a single bowl rested. Heero looked at Duo, who was wearing a black robe that was so heavy with gold thread it actually chinked, and had a veil pinned back to show his face, under the semi-transparent veil his hair was loose. Duo smiled at him, and recognising that that smile was meant to calm him Heero squeezed the hand he held.

"Come," the empress said, without moving from her position sat in front of the goddess, "and give your oath to god and country."

Hand in hand and more than a little sheepish in the face of all this ceremony, they approached the table and knelt on the two cushions facing each other. Minako had told them, in length, what to do.

"Heero," she had said, "first take the bowl in front of you, it is full of red wine, nothing more, and take a sip, then turning the bowl so your lip print faces Duo give the oath, no sword will kill you unless it be mine. Then Duo repeat the gesture."

As Duo said the words, the rich red wine burning it's way down his throat, it was spicy and metallic, the empress smiled and from a small box beside her pulled out two small crowns of flowers with ribbons tying them together. She gave one to Heero to place over Duo's head and then placed the second upon Heero herself.

"The crowns," Minako had said, "Are to mark you as lords of each other, as Duo is Tennosha then you will be Senshisha." She smiled a little to herself as if she held some great joke. "Then repeat the ceremony with the wine, the empress will give you a pair of rings for you to keep, to mark your pledge to each other."

The ring was slender and silver and carved to look like a snake swallowing it's own tail, there was a small loop at the snake's eye that was clearly to take a chain. It felt cold on Duo's hand as he fought the urge to appraise it. He wondered idly how much it would be worth if he sold it. It was strange wearing a ring on his thumb but Heero looked unmoved apart from a flicker around his eyes that suggested amusement more than discontent.

"On the third pass," Minako had told them, "the empress will take a black ribbon and tie your hands together with about a foot apart, then she will give the invocation and cut the ribbons. It is considered bad luck to remove the ribbon for at least a week. Then she will bind your hands together with a piece of red thread and present you to the goddess where you will make the oath one last time, and that's it. It's just a fancy way of drinking a cup of wine together." Mamoru had rolled his eyes but said nothing.

Heero knelt beside Duo in front of the statue of the goddess as the empress quickly and rather deftly tied them together with the thin red thread, their hands were pressed together and both lowered their eyes to the clasped hands as they fell to their sides, still together and the empress smiled at the two young men before her in ceremonial robes and like Minako before her seemed to be repressing the giggles. "Are you ready?" She asked, outstretching her hand.

Duo looked to Heero for reassurance. Heero squeezed the hand tied to his own and together they stepped forward as Tennosha and Senshisha.

Kneeling when your hands were tied was not a graceful procedure and with a peal of silvery laughter Duo fell unto Heero's kneeling lap, knocking the crown askew and almost completely pulling free the black veil. "Baka," Heero murmured softly but it wasn't an admonishment, he said it like a term of endearment. Minako had told him that when he called Duo a baka he was really saying something else, for the first time he believed her, because when it was pointed out to him he saw what Minako saw, and how reluctant he was to let Duo slide from his lap.

"Together, boys," the empress murmured.

"No sword will touch you," Heero said but he didn't look at the statue of the goddess, he looked at Duo out of the corner of his eye, and it was clear the empress noticed the gesture. "unless it be mine."

Standing in a fluid gesture of ripping layers of heavy silk the empress held out her hands to them, "beautifully done." She reached forward and with her cleverly painted doll mouth kissed Duo on the left cheek and Heero on the right. "Beautifully done, now come, my bishonen, and let us enjoy the day of the dead."

Before he could realise what had happened the Senshi appeared from one side and the Hentai from another and pulled the two of them apart, "come, " Diamond said brightly, "we must get you ready for the festivities, it's not enough that we get such a ceremony and never on the day of the dead, there will be a massive feast."

"Duo." Heero said reaching out for the boy.

Duo smiled at him, "it'll be all right." He said, "it'll be all right."

* * *

Heero scowled under the porcelain mask he had over his features as he looked at where Duo was playing with the children. They had dressed him in a very loose white yukuta and white hakama that was identical to what everyone else wore and if it wasn't for the rope of a braid swinging behind him he could have been any of the young Senshi that occupied the courtyard where only this morning he had shot and killed a Seraphim.

The children were all dressed in the same white with the same plain porcelain masks but they were laughing. They called the game that they were playing demon tag and it featured them throwing a small doll and keeping it away from Duo, they were all laughing and Heero found peace in Duo's laughter, every now and again he would look across at where Heero sat so stern and Heero knew that Duo was smiling at him before he lunged after which ever child had the doll.

"Sweet isn't it?" Terenz said sitting beside him, "I can remember Mina playing demon tag, the day of the dead is one of the greatest festivals in the year, but I imagine you have questions about the ceremony today and what comes next." If it hadn't have been for the blur of words Heero wouldn't have known him from anyone else.

Heero said nothing but his eyes lingered upon Duo where he was playing with the children, he thought briefly of the black ribbon around his wrist and the red thread underneath it and wondered if they meant what he suspected that they did.

"I had questions, but I suppose I'm the best person to answer them and all, being a doctor, and well, because of my Val, I love the day of the dead, don't you? You have to try the pink rice cakes, it's the best thing in the world for getting that musky after taste of Meirin Blood Wine out of your mouth."

"What is it?" Heero asked.

"What, the rice cakes, they're dyed with cochineal but made with sugar and ground almonds, they're like mock funeral cakes."

"No," Heero interrupted him, "Meirin blood wine."

Terenz was silent for a moment. Then he lowered his eyes. "I never said I wouldn't tell you, I don't think they expected you to ask. Meirin blood wine is, well," he paused, "blood-wine is the blood of a stallion mixed with honey and sugar and fermented. It's got great medicinal purposes." He paused again.

"And Meirin blood wine." Heero pressed. It wasn't a question it was a demand.

"When," Terenz stopped, "this isn't easy to explain, I'm sure they didn't give you Meirin blood wine, it's probably just me being paranoid, I mean you don't know what it is, it was probably just normal red wine."

"What is it?" Heero continued.

"When someone makes an incursion unto Darin soil and they are not killed just captured they are cultivated, then they are cured and then bled out and the blood mixed with hops, wheat and sugar, it is fermented. It's used for ceremonies where things are made absolute."

Heero sighed. "Human blood." He said as if it explained everything.

"Yes," Terenz answered, "invader blood, it's supposed to give you their wisdom and strength." He looked at Heero, "You don't seem horrified."

"Should I be?" Heero asked.

"You did just share a cup of human blood with him," he flicked his eyes at Duo where he was leaping amongst the children, obviously not quite catching them to prolong the game, Heero doubted that the children noticed it.

"Soon you will learn how bitter as salt and stone is the bread of others, and how hard are the ups and downs of stairs that are not your own."1 Heero answered blankly. There was no emotion in his voice, "nevertheless it might not be such a good idea to let Duo in on that information, he might do something foolish in reaction."

"What do you mean?" Terenz asked.

"It's entirely possible that he would regurgitate the blood." Heero told him, "and then he would miss the celebration."

"And it wouldn't do any good, this being his wedding night and all, I mean that's why they sent me, I mean they thought you'd have questions, we don't know what kind of education you got, and well, I mean I know you two have been sleeping together since you got here but there was no evidence that you were sleeping together" he put a different emphasis on that, "so we didn't know if you just didn't know how, or you were waiting, or if you were worried about our reaction, when in truth Prima and Otonna both were kind of disappointed that you hadn't."

"I'm sorry." Heero stammered, "what did you say?" Terenz blinked, his train of thought broken, "I think I misheard you, did you just say that Duo and I are married?"

Terenz looked surprised, and then amused, "they didn't tell you, of course, how else could you bind a senshisha to a tennosha if not through marriage. The sharing of the wine, the crowns, the ribbons, the red thread to tie your destinies together, what did you think it was?"

Heero looked bewildered for a moment, "please excuse me," he said, fighting free of the porcelain mask, "I think I'm going to be sick."

Terenz rolled his eyes, "take off the mask and put your head between your knees," he said stepping into the role of doctor, "it's just a surprise, you'll be fine, now take deep breaths." He smiled to himself, "if you have this reaction, I wonder how Duo's going to take the news."

"What news?" Duo asked, he was holding two glasses of punch, one was obviously for Heero.

"That you're married." Terenz said.

Duo fainted.

* * *


	23. The Empress' apology

Seeing Duo wilt Heero forced himself to his feet despite his nausea and growled at Terenz. "I'm a doctor." Terenz said, trying to bat him away, Heero stood between Duo and the doctor.

"I'll take him inside." Heero said, lifting Duo as carefully as he could, even as the world swayed around him and he thought he might vomit.

"Senshisha or no," Terenz said putting his hand on Heero's head, "you'll do him no good if you faint too." He took a deep breath. "Give him to me, the two of us will walk back into the Dairai."

Heero growled again as his vision swam and he stumbled. "Is there a problem here, Terenz?" Mamoru asked coming across. He had his porcelain mask pushed up over his hair. He was wearing a silvery ribbon on his left wrist, in fact, although Heero was not in a position to notice it, most of the men were wearing their marriage ribbons.

"They had a shock." Terenz said, "Master Heero will you permit Mamoru to take Master Duo?" His tone was formal. Heero jerked back pressing himself against the veranda. It took the legs out from under him and he found himself sitting on it with Duo in his lap.

"Ro," Duo said quietly, coming around. "I don't feel well." Heero just tightened his arms about Duo. He managed to make his fingers move to brush the bangs away from his face.

"I don't know." The empress said stepping forward, she knelt before them a perfect porcelain doll with her mask in her hand and her hair in a long black braid over her shoulder. "Men." She muttered under her breath. "Bishonen," she said gently, "let's get you inside, ne?"

Heero growled again, baring his teeth.

"Ro," Duo said reaching up and touching his face. "I'm okay, really," Heero blinked once and then twice then he looked down at Duo, then blinking he pressed him hard into his chest. "Ro, need to breathe, Heero, need to…" Heero let off the pressure.

"You scared me." He muttered leaning down into Duo's hair, "you scared me."

Duo's fingers lingered on the planes of his cheek, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to."

"Come on, bishonen," the empress said softly, "let's get you inside out of the sun, ne?"

"Okay, heika," Duo said but he made no move to move from the sanctuary of Heero's arms.

"Come on then, otherwise every young woman in the court of winds is going to be making up an audience." Her smile was fond.

"You played a terrible trick on them, Heika." Terenz said, crossing his arms across his chest. "If either of these boys called you out all of your house would stand against you."

"Yes," she said standing, "perhaps I did, and if either of these boys called me out I would not gainsay them." She swept her braid from over her shoulder so it hung like a rope down her back. "Are you ready, bishonen?" She said offering Heero her hand, "lets get the pair of you in out of the sun."

Heero did not take the empress' hand but he did follow her into the shadows of the Dairai and the small room that they had had put aside for their use, he sat down with a compliant Duo in his arms and glared at her. It seemed to make he appear more fond of him on the whole. "Here," she said, holding out a beaker of water that she had poured for him, "I honestly thought you understood the dual nature of the ceremony." She said, "and for my misconception I apologise." She gave a deep bow, lowering herself to her knees and pressing her forehead against the matting. "If you wish an annulment I will have it drawn up for you."

"Why?" Duo asked, taking the beaker of water from Heero and taking measured sips.

"Because I wanted a husband I loved." She answered calmly. "I will send Takajo in to make up your futons and bring you something to eat, I'll make sure you're awoken in time for the fireworks. I truly am sorry that I spoiled your day of the dead."

Takajo brought with her a small cadre of servants who in mere moments had converted the room from a sitting room into a bedroom by moving the furniture and laying out two futons. "Is there anything you require, Tennosha-sama?" She asked Duo as she laid out a pair of matching pale blue yukuta. "If you need something, do not be afraid to call." She said, kneeling at the door before she pulled it shut with a flat hand.

Heero, for the first time, laid Duo down on one of the futons and began to untie the hakama at his waist. Duo batted his hands away, "even if we are married," he said with a faint smile, "I still must protest for the sake of my innocence."

"Baka," Heero muttered under his breath.

"Eluneth's right," Duo said as he pulled the blanket over himself before he undressed. "baka doesn't mean idiot in Heero speak."

"And what does she say it means?" Heero asked pulling the yukuta over his naked shoulders.

"She didn't say." Duo said, lying on his side on the futon so he would face Heero when he climbed into his own futon. Heero climbed in beside him. "She said you'd tell me when you were ready, she just said," he paused as his face was split in half by a yawn, "that it was more in the nature of silly goose than idiot." He wriggled so that he was comfortable, curled against Heero. He didn't think to protest that there were two futons and that Heero could very well sleep in his own. "I didn't sleep very well last night, I was worried."

"About me," Heero said, sweeping the cinnamon bangs away from Duo's half closed eyes.

"Without you." Duo corrected with a mumble.

"Duo," Heero began, staring at the pale face in front of him, of the heart shape of his cheekbones and the slow slope of his nose. "Can I kiss you?"

"No," Duo said, then he smirked, "because I'm going to kiss you instead."

He slowly tilted his face and planted a soft, almost butterfly, kiss, on his nose, and then languorously on each of Heero's eyes and then his chin.

"Baka," Heero murmured and caught Duo's face with his hands and kissed him on the mouth, slowly and somewhat chastely. They fell asleep like that, wound in each other's arm, with their faces almost pressing.

* * *


	24. the witch of the forest

Duo was dreaming.

In his dream the destroyed city's broken walls astounded him and fallen roofs that surrounded the grassy plaza that the sun poured its light into. A fountain spewed water from a woman's head, and there was a triangular symbol half broken off on her forehead. Her jaw was missing but the water still spilled over her perfect hands as if she tried to stop it or catch it. Her breasts and hands were stained green from the constant flood, but her marble head was a spoiled by moss, although there was a reddish stain around her mouth from the iron in the water. It seemed that violence, more than neglect, had smashed in the back of the head and ripped away her jaw. A window of coloured glass looked over the plaza, but here and there the panes had fallen from the putty. The walkways had shed their paving stones in favour of grass and wild herbs, so they stood upright here and there like gravestones.

There was an orchard; it was vastly overgrown. The branches tumbled into each other and clawed into each other's growth, so that one tree seemed to grow both lemons and pears. There was a fig tree half strangled with choke weeks, the fruit was unripe and unfit to eat. All over the grass, underneath it there was fruit, the windfall of many trees left to ruin and rot. The cherry tree stood alone, out of the reach of the other trees. Its roots had lifted the circle of paving stones that surrounded it, and its branches were smothered in its blowsy blossoms that were a bright dark pink.

"It's beautiful." Duo said, amazed, as he watched the slight breeze ruffle the pink blossoms and they danced and swayed as if someone actually shook the tree. He was as alone as one is in dreams, wherever he was in this place there was no difference between what he said and what he thought. "All the ones I've seen were either white or a very pale pink."

"Do you know how they make the blossoms dark?" A woman asked from behind him, she sounded more afraid than knowledgeable. "There's a body, a real human body under the roots, that makes the blossoms dark pink."

"Who are you?" Duo asked.

"I am called Vivika." She answered him. She was a woman come late to middle age and she had been a phenomenal beauty though that was giving way to time. He had heard the name before. She wore a rust coloured dress of an intricately pleated silk held tight by a golden girdle. Her feet were bare and she wore a golden crown. There was no way she had hiked this far into the Termigent. So Duo had a natural response, a sense of cold terror that he couldn't quite rationalise. "You fear me," she said with a smile, and it was then he realised that she had no mud on her feet though it had been raining all day, and that she was wearing heavy cosmetics and her hair had been professionally dressed. There were no leaves in her hair. She was dressed like one of the women in Tobin's illustrated version of the Akheniad. This was not right. He wondered with the part of his brain that was not contemplating the best way to bolt if she was the reason the Termigent was said to be haunted. "I am not to be feared by you, you have just woken me, that is all." She smiled, "Follow." She waved her hand and the close knit trees of the thicket parted and there was a fountain within and that the ground was paved, and when she walked forward he realised her feet didn't touch the ground. "I mean you no harm," She said with a wicked smile. "You have need of calm and so you found your way here, to this place, to me, that I might bring you peace."

"What are you?" Duo asked. She hadn't answered his first question, she told him her name, but that was all.

"I am the Witch of the Forest." She replied with an arch grin. She ran her hand over her grey brown hair, smoothing it down to show a scar on her temple that she had made no attempt to hide from him. Her hands were soft looking. She did not look like a witch at all. He imaged the witch of the forest to be an old crone in a black robe with skulls and bones as jewellery, that's how they had been in the Senshi stories that Tobin had told him.

"Where am I?"

Her laughter was like a road of stars that shone in the not light of this place. "This is the Forest, where else would the Witch of the Forest be?" He couldn't argue with her logic. She reached out to smooth his hair in a strange gesture of mother comfort. "Do you have hunger?"

"I," Duo began, "I don't think I could eat again."

"You have seen terrors well beyond your years." The woman said sitting down on the rim of the fountain, it looked like the woman who spewed the water might have been her. "Come, little one," she opened her arms to him, and though he didn't know why he went to her, and laid his head upon her breast. She stroked his hair. "You have a terrible choice ahead of you, little one," she put a kiss upon the top of his head, stroking his hair gently. He felt he had no choice to but to accede to her comfort. "And so much sorrow already troubles you. We sent you champions to ease your path, and in that we have failed. I am sorry, my little one." He couldn't help it, he was crying. "Such small shoulders to have the weight of the world resting upon them." In her arms, in the ruined city in the Forest, he felt safe and comforted by the beautiful woman who loved him like a mother, who treated him like a beloved son. "Now remember the anchors that have crossed your path, the champions we have sent to protect you." She laid a kiss on his forehead, "and sleep, my little one, sleep. When you awaken it will have eased, I cannot make it better, but I can ease the pain." She kissed him again, stroking his hair and in her arms, stood by the fountain listening to the patter slap of water striking water, he slept.

* * *

He awoke to the murmur of raised voices throughout the Dairai, he lifted his head slightly and then lowered it into back into the warm curve of Heero's neck where he was safe.

"You dare," the empress' voice was raised and rang through the palace like a great bell, "to behave so to me in my own court, Seraphim, I will have your head for this." Heero climbed from the futon, clad only in his undershorts and pulled the yukuta about himself as he pulled open the door.

Throughout the Dairai there was shouting and screaming, and people running along the corridors. Senshi who were normally as dormant as dogs were belting on their paired swords.

"My lord Senshisha," Diamond asked grabbing him by the arm, "please go back inside."

"What's happening?" Heero asked, making sure Duo was fine, if now sitting awake and watching to see if he had any answers.

"The Seraphim have brought a full battalion from Coresc, they must have left about the same time that you left Dathyl." Diamond said, pushing Heero inside, "there will be no problem. The empress will not allow it, and even if it is the night of the dead there are enough Senshi in the palace to repel them." She pulled the door closed and vanished without a sound.

"I swore to protect you." Heero said, taking the sword that Mamoru had given him.

"I can protect myself." Duo said, shimmying into his pants.

"I never denied that." Heero said, "we can not stay here, the Seraphim want something, and I will not let them take your heart." He was actually incensed at the very concept. "Get your knives, Duo, we will leave immediately."

"Heero," Duo began, checking that both knives were in their sheathes in his boots.

"Your heart belongs to me," he snarled, "and no one will else will take it from me, Duo, not even you." And simultaneously annoyed and warmed by the declaration Duo began getting ready.

Tobin pushed open the door, Josian was standing slightly behind him. "The Seraphim are demanding me, so I'm sure that both of you," he appraised them carefully, "want out of here as much as I do, follow me, I'll take you to Meirin." He threw them each a bundle of clothes, Heero's was a basic senshi uniform but Duo's was a maid's dress.

"What about Mina?" Duo asked.

"Mamoru is one step ahead of you, she's waiting for us at the Tor, or at least will be by the time we get there. Don't worry about provisions, they'll wait for us at the Tor." Tobin said, "just get ready as quickly as you can."

"Why do the Seraphim want you?" Heero asked, he was working out a risk assessment and if Heero was dangerous he would be disposed of.

"I am the Eyes of Honeybourne." Tobin answered, "I witnessed the slaughter, with my report they could take war to the Garvem in the south. If that happens Dathyl will fall to the Garvem, the Senshi won't allow such a growth of Garvem power, Dathyl and all it stands for will become a battleground, it is much easier to flee and avoid the Seraphim than have to step up and do my duty by house and kingdom serving both interests. So, if you're leaving, come on." Heero looked at him as if he had started speaking in tongues. "I'll explain on the way, come on." Tobin continued. "Out of that window," he said suddenly, "do you see that mountain to the east?" It was hard to miss the mountain, it was vast, imposing and dark, "that is Meirin, if something happens to any of us, Heero, you must make sure Duo and Mina make it to the mountain, nothing can hurt them there, the aegis will protect them, I won't make you swear because I know I don't need to, but you have to get them to the mountain." Heero nodded, understanding. "It's a simple enough route, head due east of the Tor, north of Shiro and then west at the Akamatsu forest. You must skirt the Termigent, you mustn't enter it for any reason, ever." It was obvious Tobin was scared, an emotion they'd never seen him with before, "Duo, the dead will take you home, don't be afraid to call on them if something goes wrong. The Seraphim are relentless, we have to go." He flicked his eyes to the door. "There really isn't time to linger, Duo, put the dress on and we can get moving."

Duo scowled but nonetheless pulled the dress over his head. "Servants are invisible," Josian said, "no one questions them being where they're meant to be, people will just assume you are being escorted by a common senshi, it's hiding in plain sight. We really need to get you out of here, there are more sensible clothes for you at the Tor."

"If you worry so much for us reaching our destination," Heero said as he belted his shirt into place, "should you not tell us where this Tor is?"

"In the kitchens there is a cellar, go through the cellar and behind the well, and there is a series of tunnels, they lead directly to the Tor." Josian answered bluntly, "you really cannot get lost. The way is clear and the dead will guide Duo. Come on, unless you wish for the Seraphim to gut you like a fish."

The tunnel was almost exactly the way that Tobin had described it, it had been carved out of the soil and fixed in place with baked clay bricks. The entrance was a sliver of a doorway between two outcroppings but the tunnel itself was wide and full. Tobin had lifted a jug of oil that worked as a lamp.

They started out at a fast lope when they became aware of the hard slapping of wooden soles against the packed earth. "The Seraphim!" Josian said, "Tobin, take Duo and head out, they only want you two, Heero, you have your sword?" Heero nodded. "Do you fancy your chances?" Heero's smile was slow and sinuous. "Wait for us at the Tor." Josian said, in the light from the lamp he was grinning, it was terrible sight to behold. From his hip he unsheathed an axe, it glinted in the light like Josian's golden eyes. "I can't imagine we'll be long."

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note
> 
> This is a weird text because it is set inside another text where all hell is currently breaking loose, they honestly think the world is ending and it has little if anything to do with what's happening between Duo and Heero but is very important regardless, hence the strange chapters and explanations of things that make no sense to either the boys or you I imagine. So here's a brief summary
> 
> Achren is a witch, she rules the large state to the south of Dathyl. She maintains her power with an army called the Garvem.
> 
> The Seraphim can't stand this and want any excuse to go to war against her because of a massacre that happened about 20 or so years before at the River Ailel.
> 
> The senshi, who have maintained a fragile peace with Sidi (Achren's country) would not allow the Garvem to attack Dathyl as it would upset the balance between them and would therefore invade.
> 
> The Garvem attacked Honeybourne which was nominally a Dathyl state because Honeybourne brought it on themselves, as the royal observer Tobin could have coerced the late queen to war, but she died and her son is mad, leaving a power vacuum that the Seraphim are using to their best advantage. Despite being primarily based in Dathyl the Seraphim have no allegiance to the country and will see it destroyed to remove Achren. This is why they chase Tobin because if they could get his statement they could force the Dathyl army to war, because the king can't stop them, they'll declare a crisis of the faith, seize the army and go. They can't do this in Dathyl itself because Alister protects him, but there is little reason for Teishi to do this either. Duo and Mina at this point are just added bonuses. There, that should make it make some more sense.


	25. are you in love?

The Tor that Tobin led Duo to through the tunnel was a large hill with a small manor built into its shadow in such a way that it was almost hidden. A pair of dark clothed senshi met them at the gate. "Seraphim." Duo gasped, almost beside himself with worry for Heero who he had left behind, "in the tunnel."

The senshi gave him a quick bow before running into the tunnel, a hand signal waved behind them gathered another four senshi to their aid.

Minako was waiting behind the gate, she was dressed in leather pants and a jacket, her hair was tied up in a turban that made her neck seem very long and vulnerable. She was clutching the gate. "Tobin," she seemed to visibly relax when she saw them, "Duo, come in, where's Heero?"

"The tunnel." Duo said looking back at the gate.

"I shall go aid him." Mamoru said stepping out of the shadows and moving towards the gate, "I trust he will be well, but nonetheless I imagine it will soothe your heart if he is returned to you as soon as possible."

Duo gathered a smile for him, he wasn't sure from which reserve he pulled it but Mamoru acknowledged it. "Thank you, Mamo-chan." Duo said almost under his breath. Mamoru, who had taken a step towards the tunnel flicked his eyes back at him. Then started off towards the tunnel.

Minako put her hand on Duo's shoulder, "let's get you out of that dress," she said softly, "you don't need the camouflage now."

"He's going to be all right." Duo said, it didn't sound like a question.

"He will be fine," Tobin said, squeezing Duo's other shoulder, "Josian and Mamoru are both exemplary fighters and the Seraphim are badly trained at best."

"It's just." Duo began.

"You watch his back," Minako said leading Duo into the manor, "and it's strange expecting someone else to show the same care you do, but he is your Senshisha, he will protect you."

"Come on," Tobin said, offering Duo his hand, "let's get you changed." Duo reached out and grabbed him by the sleeve, wary of touching flesh to flesh.

He led him into the small manor and into a small chamber that he called the library, though unlike the library of Halcyon there was not a single book in it. As Duo was changing Tobin sat down against one of the shelves and crossed his arms. "Teishi did you wrong," he said as Duo pulled the dress over his head, "as her scion I have more power to act against that than you ever will. At your word I will call her out." Duo didn't know what to answer to that as he belted on the shirt, "but just answer me one question," he was biting his lip and very worried over what he was asking, "you look like my Avili and so I get very protective over you, and I have been cruel, I would understand if you wanted nothing else to do with me once I get you to Meirin," he swept his hair back with one hand, a few stray black hairs fell across the scar on his forehead. "But answer me this and I will leave you be, are you in love, Duo? Tell me you love him and I will do all I can to help you, because you look like my Avili."

There was an odd desperation in what Tobin asked him. When they had met and he had tried to seduce him Tobin had asked him if he was in love, that if he was in love he wouldn't waste his time. "I don't understand." Duo said as he pulled on the boots.

"If you love him I will be a champion in your defence, if you don't then I will petition Teishi for what she did." Tobin said, "I couldn't marry Avili, I just hope I made her happy, you look so like her, except your eyes sparkle where hers could drown," he took a deep breath whilst his eyes scanned the tiles of the ceiling. "I lost Avili and when you smile I remember hers, so I want you to smile, if you love him and he makes you happy I'll do everything in my power to help you, or failing that I will find someone who does. Mamoru makes Minako so unhappy, and Diamond and Fiore dance around each other, they love each other but are caught in their duty and it frustrates Teishi so much. I can't make you happy," he said quietly, "I can't even touch you, but tell me he does."

"He does." Duo said, surprising himself that he could speak so firmly about this. "I think I always have. Your sister makes me face the things I can't face on my own. Eluneth has been a great help to me." He started to finger comb his hair, "yes, Tobin, I do love him. Thank you for your concern, though, I just wish i."

"He will be here soon, and we will make a move towards Meirin, I'm just glad that you're happy." Then Tobin's mode turned mischievous, "it was the talk of the Okiya that you were sleeping together, do you have questions?"

Duo blushed to the roots of his hair, but he could play as well, "and if I did?"

"I'd send you to Josian." Tobin answered blithely, "he is a purveyor of many types of strange information." He raised his chin to look rather refined, like a lady of the court. "Of course, all those rumours about us are utterly untrue." He raised his head even higher, his eyes flickering mischief.

"Are those the rumours about the goats, or the ones about the plague?" Duo asked with a laugh.

"In Dathyl less than a month and he hears I am the source of the plague." Tobin said.

"02 status." Heero said throwing open the door, there was a splash of blood across his face. He looked as tense as a harp string, as if at any moment he would snap with dire consequences.

"No damage sustained, 01." Duo said and watched Heero relax as if someone had let the air out of him, only on hearing those words did he sheathe the sword that he held. "01 status." He continued.

Heero offered him a shy smile. "I'm okay now." he said, "thank you, Tobin, for keeping him safe."

Tobin offered Heero a low bow. "As long as you make him happy I will be your staunchest advocate."

Heero blinked, once and then slowly a second time. "I make you happy?" he asked, suddenly sounding very lost. Then he shook away the weakness like a dog that had been struck. "We must move as soon as possible, the Senshi can't hold the Seraphim for long."

"I can't ride." Duo said looking between them.

"I can, you can ride with me." Heero said in his usual monotone. There was no argument in his tone, but no one offered him one.

* * *

Heero swung up on the horse before pulling Duo up to sit between him and the horse's neck side saddle. "tell me if you're uncomfortable." He murmured into Duo's ear.

Duo leant back against a chest that was no broader than his own. "This is like one of those books Wufei reads, where it's all the princess' being whisked away in the dark of the night." Although he couldn't see it Duo knew that Heero was smiling. "You should see some of the books on his laptop, he only lets us think it's poetry, it's classic romances."

"Are you a princess, Duo?" Heero asked.

"No," Duo replied sharply, "I'm the Lady of Meirin."

Heero's chuckle rumbled against him like thunder, deep in his chest. "You are mine," he murmured, that low that Duo was almost sure he hadn't heard him, "be that 02 or the lady of Meirin, or Duo Maxwell, you are mine and that's all that matters to me."

"Do you mean that?" Duo asked, looking at him, although they were of a height there was something in the way that Heero carried himself that made him seem much taller and broader than he really was.

"Mean what?" Heero asked.

"That I am all that matters to you."

"That's Shiro." Mamoru called out seeing the golden warmth of lamplight effectively avoiding the question.


	26. In battle there is nothing, only water

A cadre of Senshi met them at the gate. Mamoru waved his hand and barked orders. "I'll accompany them." Josian said suddenly, Tobin blinked as he looked at his companion. "They'll need the devil's own luck."

"Mamoru," Minako said, breaking her silence, "it will be best if you accompany them, Tobin and Heero are both more than capable, they can keep me safe till Meirin."

Mamoru frowned, his expression grew even more dour, "are you sure?" He asked her, he looked very fragile suddenly in the light from the torches as it reflected and danced across the planes of his face.

She nodded, but her face was out of the halo of the light, it shone on her golden hair where the silk veil she wore was pulled back. "You are my champion." She said, but her tone was firm as if she was trying to convince herself. "There will be a better chance if you lead the Senshi in the diversion against the Seraphim. I believe in you." The last words had the ring of formality, like she was giving him her blessing.

Mamoru finally lowered his eyes. "you five," he pointed to the Senshi, "accompany the Tennosha to Meirin. As Senshisha, I command, and if a single hair on either of their heads comes to harm I will chase each of you in to the hell of being cut into many pieces, if you fall in her defence you will be admitted to heaven."

"Hai, Senshisha." They called out as one, falling into a close formation about them.

"You are to obey the boy as Senshisha, and Tobin as Ouji-sama." There was a slight tremor in his voice as he barked out the orders. "Or I will use the powers of the Senshisha to make your lives miserable, am I understood?"

"Hai, Senshisha." The barked out in answer.

"Then go with Acuya," he said, and then he looked at Minako and his gaze softened slightly, something only someone who knew him very well could see in him. "I will see you in Meirin, don't do anything stupid, like getting yourself killed in the meantime."

She offered him a wan smile, then nodded slowly, but her expression was hidden by the darkness.

Standing next to Mamoru Duo was sure he heard the soldier mutter "Mina, daisuke da yo." But he could not have sworn to it.

"Protect her." He said firmly, and then with Josian beside him rode off towards the Senshi, with a cadre of Senshi numbering at least twenty behind him.

Minako watched him go, "I believe in you." She said calmly for everyone there, "but this still breaks my heart." She said under her breath so quietly that even Heero, who sat next to her, was unsure that he had heard her, to Duo it was just a slow, sad exhalation. "I guess twenty years isn't that long at all." She patted her horse's neck as if for comfort. If the dead offered her counsel Duo didn't see it.

* * *

The Seraphim brought fire with them, putting everything in their path to the torch. It was fortunate that the escape route past the Tor was uninhabited or there might have been a slaughter. As it was a few trees along the way burned brightly in the night.

Mamoru was charged with a holy purpose as he faced what must have been a hundred Seraphim with only twenty men and Josian of whom he had his suspicions.

He pushed his horse hard, the sooner these upstart Seraphim were destroyed the sooner he could return to Minako and make sure that she was safe. They would be apart weeks this time, when they longest they had ever been apart was a few hours in all the time that they had been married. The thought weighed heavily on him. He took a deep breath and strengthened his resolve, he would simply have to take his anger out on the Seraphim, something his teacher and tried to advise him against but was still prepared to use.

In battle, Mamoru repeated to himself remembering the lessons of his teacher, who was long dead, one must be like water. Water feels nothing. Water wants nothing. Water is immutable. Nothing can stand in the way of water. Water erodes rocks. Water drowns kings. In battle there is nothing, only water.

He looked at the gathered Senshi he had brought with him from Shiro, the golden light of Josian, who shone with an inner radiance. Yes, he thought to himself, we will be water, and he, he could see Josian and the look of determination on his sharp features, he will reveal himself to be fire.

The Seraphim started their chanting as soon as they saw them. Senshi dressed in black with their masks pulled tight around their faces and the golden form of Josian turning to silver in the moonlight. "Angharad!" They chanted.

Although they carried no banner the Senshi were in no doubt who they served, raising their heads they answered in the ancient battle-chant of the Senshisha, twenty two voices raised as one to call out the oldest of warcries "Shi-ne!" And with the thunder of hooves and the chorus of yells they collided, and then they unleashed Hell.

He plunged into the melee with his round shield held high to protect him from the rain and storm of arrows as he drove his horse through the Seraphim screaming "Meirin!".

Within the fray all was chaos, the silver armour contrasted against the lacquered black wood of the Senshi and everywhere horses churned up divets of mud and sod that splattered across them punctuated with sprays of blood and waves of thick black water. Mamoru could feel the blood pounding in his veins like a Senshi war drum as his men charged with their horse's hooves rolling like thunder even on the rain slicked plain as the moon raised her silver head through the thick black thundercloud. "Meirin!" Mamoru screamed using the sword Minako had given him to slice through a Seraphim's throat as he smashed another away with his shield.

Within the battle Mamoru was aware of the changing tides of battle even if he couldn't see them. Back and forth like a coquette at a ball the line moved, then he fell as his horse was cut out from under him by a lucky Seraphim knight. He hit the ground rolling, losing his shield as he fell. It didn't matter. He came up baring the sword Minako had called Ran even as he brought up his bracer to join the fight. The sword hungered. Even in all this chaos the Tennosha and a Seraphim Knight could duel.

They launched at each other like cats, hissing as they struck and lunged without pause or block. Like animals they fought, or boys pretending to know the forms. The finesse of "_breeze parting the reeds_", or "_carefully pacing tiger_" were lost in the blindsided desire to kill. So they hacked and they slashed, Mamoru blocking with his bracer to strike with his sword, and the Seraphim blocking with his sword to slash with the knife fitted under the bracer. The Seraphim was as relentless as he was. Mamoru wanted to defend his Lady and the Seraphim wanted the witch's heart in a jar. There was no impasse. Both wanted the other dead enough that they were incapable of using the forms. They were both evenly matched.

Mamoru overstepped and the Seraphim jumped into the breach pushing the sword clear with a flurry of blows. Mamoru smiled and the sword blade across the bracer disembowelled the man. The Seraphim stumbled back into the fighting as was swallowed by the press of men as if he had never been there.

It was then Mamoru felt the wetness running hot against his fingers where the rain was biting cold. "Mamoru!" Josian said pushing his way through the fighting with the flat of his shield. He blinked slowly wondering why suddenly his arm was so heavy, and his head so light. "Mamoru," Josian said catching him as he fell.


	27. Samrath

Over the field of Samrath the sun rose like a stripper, slowly pulling away clouds to reveal it's nakedness. Of them all only Minako did not seem surprised to see them.

To the southwest the Garvem were a black mass, their armour shining in the prelight and glistening with colours, making them look like an army of beetles gathered and waiting. Their banner was a large black hand on a red field that snapped and billowed in the slight wind. Heero was impressed by their discipline

To the south east, pressed against the imposing black forest, the Termigent, were the Senshi, and high sat the Seraphim-adjutant, Danan D'Karioni, on his white horse. They had no banner but they wore golden cloaks emblazoned with a pair of open white wings.

The senshi were to the north, gathered under many banners. Upon seeing them Minako reached into her saddlebag and pulled out a long white wool robe, snapping it out to shake out the creases.

"No," Tobin said upon seeing it, "Mamoru's not here. You promised, Mina."

"I made my oaths," she answered stiffly, fastening the robe with a chain about her waist. "And I keep them." She looked at Duo, "this is the duty of the lAdy of Meirin, such as it is, we walk the battlefields to bring peace to the dead." She sounded sad, "Tobin, Heero, take him to Meirin, please." There was a look about her as if she would cry. "I'll be fine." She continued not waiting for their protest.

"It is against orders." Heero answered, "and it opens to many variables for the execution of a successful mission, I will only leave for Meirin with you." His tone was bland. "We do not have to enter this fray."

Minako sighed, "I do," she said. "If you're so determined to fight," she looked at Tobin, "keep them safe, the Senshi will protect me."

Duo realised sometihng, "you knew this was coming, didn't you?" He asked, "that's why you sent Mamoru away."

Minako didn't answer him, she just spurred her horse on to join the gathered Senshi.

As soon as minako reached them the Senshi charged.

Duo could hear their battle-cries and the thunder of their hooves. To the Southwest was a knotted mass of men in glossy black armour, and to the Southeast the soldiers wore white under a banner of outstretched golden wings. The majority of the Senshi wore a crest of a crystal bell, but their standard said shi ne. The men in black had long pikes atopped with curving blades and the men in white had blades strapped under their forearms.

They screamed obscenities at the Senshi who wore lacquered wooden armour. They pulled scarves, called kamen, from around their necks to cover their mouths with a murmur of eta, unclean. The other armies charged in and it was chaos, limbs flew and heads rolled and blood spattered, Tobin and Heero pulled him away from the fighting, up agianst the forest, but making sure not to enter it, even slightly.

What he saw next altered everything, later he would say it was a pivotal moment, because as the three armies clattered together, amongst the blood and gobbets, mud and heat of battle, she stood surrounded by those that fell. She was giving them comfort as she rewove their silver threads into the loom above. The dead of all the armies gathered around her as she appeased their terrible loss. He saw in that instant what it meant to be the Lady of Meirin.

None of those living on this field could see what she could see, what he could see. Duo understood that now. Then Minako looked directly at him, at Duo, and bowed her head as if to an equal. She deliberately acknowledged him. The white army attacked her from behind. The knot of Senshi around her were cut down like blades of wheat. They grabbed her, one placing a broken black sword to her throat. Her face was calm as another calm forward, and Duo was transfixed. The man pulled a steel helmet from his head and threw it back into the mud. It was Danan and he followed the line of Minako's gaze, but there was no way that he could make out what it was she focussed on, there was too much in the way. He just wanted to see what she did.

He forced her unto the ground and put his knees on her hips, she was strangely quiescent. He placed the tip of the curved knife under his right forearm to her solar plexus, and then pushed in and up, splitting her open like a melon. As she lay dying, held down by his knees, she smiled at Deakon as the man with no helmet put his hand in side her chest and ripped out her beating heart with a dreadful wrench.

Duo tried to struggle out of Heero's grip but Tobin stopped him and Heero held him firm, crushing him against his chest. The armies were not done, even after Minako fell, they hacked and they slashed amongst themselves, but a second woman took the field. She wore shimmering white that seemed to throw light about her. She was younger than the lady, no older than Duo maybe, and her hair was the colour of chestnuts shining in the sun, and amongst her short curls she wore a golden circlet, but stuck through it were two feathers, one black one white. Her eyes were fixed directly on his as she stepped through the battle. They couldn't see her. But it wasn't her eyes that held him, though they were eerily similar to his own. Raised behind her, golden in the golden light, was a single feathered wing. It was outstretched like the banner of the man with no helmet. He fell forward and rolled unto his side whilst he dry retched, because he had no more to come, and his knees were pulled into his chest as he sobbed and the girl with the one wing came closer and closer. "Deakon," she said and she squeezed his eyes shut, pressing his head to Heero's neck and wished it all away.

HE became aware of the horse moving beneath him as Heero and Tobin led the field, he just pressed himself agianst Heero and wished that he could cry. He wished he could understand what Minako had done, and why.

Instead they carried him away from the field, as helpless as a newborn, to the tower of Meirin. Part of him knew he should dismount, that he should take the field in Minako's place. He could hear the dead screaming out in anguish. He felt something tugging at him, scratching at his inner walls, "Deakon," the woman with the one wing whispered, "call the Ningyo." So he did. "Avenge her."

He pulled his head away from the safe crook of Heero's neck and whispered, "Ningyo, tasukete." Saying the words that she told him to say.

Before Duo couldn't have said that he had seen the dark shadows in the forest, but they had been there, waiting for him, he knew it now. They were men, or had been at one point, their flesh was grey and mottled, a copper band stained green with verdigris circled each man's forehead, almost carved into the meat of it, creating a wedge in their heads. It was clear that their backs had been broken, they were stooped over, dragging their forearms agaisnt the ground as they loped into the fray, and from the wrists their hands had been cut away and long bladed knives put in their place. There could not have been more than a hundred of them.

They fell upon the Seraphim, Garvem and Senshi alike as they screamed and they died.

A Garvem with a red band about his arm managed to almost completely sever the head of one of the Ningyo, it fell back flopping but still the sewn up eyes and mouth started, convulsing, and still the Ningyo attacked relentlessly, hacking with one hand and stabbing with the other. It took a much weaker blow to fell the Garvem.

Duo knew what they were, even as Heero hissed under his breath. They were the dead, they were the reanimated dead. "He is mine." Duo said, "only I will kill the Seraphim who killed her, bring him to me." He could make those commands, because they were dead, because they would serve him. Who the lady with the one wing was he did not know, nor, did he care.

It was a massacre.

Danan D'Karioni realised quickly that he was responsible for the century of deathless, merciless, mindless warriors that flooded the field, clutching Minako's heart to his chest, as if it was a priceless treasure and not a lump of useless flesh, he ran. He ran as hard as he could, with the loping Ningyo fast behind him. If they caught him Duo did not see because Heero had spurred his horse into a gallop and was murmuring in his ear as they fled the field, leaving the Ningyo and the slaughter behind.

* * *


	28. The Lord of Meirin

Of the ride from Samrath to Meirin Duo never would recall the details. Only Heero slowly shaking him awake and his face feeling sticky from tears. All he could focus on was the terrible image of Minako lying gutted in the mud of the field, with the dead beside her screaming, and the easy violence of the Ningyo. "We're here." Heero said quietly, but made no move to pull away from where Duo clung to him.

"Takeo." Tobin called out swinging from his horse.

"We know." A hooded figure said coming out of one of the stone houses. Meirin was a bundle of small square stone houses that surrounded a silvery tower, behind it was a mountain with strange alcoves that Duo knew were graves, the way he knew that Takeo was keeper of this place, and was about a thousand years dead. "We felt the Ningyo rise." His voice was calm and clear, "welcome, lord of Meirin, I am Takeo, mayor of this place. Lodgings have been made for you."

"Lady Minako has fallen." Tobin yelled, his face pink with anger that he couldn't express any other way.

"We know," Takeo said, "and we will mourn her as we have mourned every lady of Meirin that has ever fallen in the course of her duty, there will be weeping in the streets of Meirin when there is time, but first, our young lord must be taken care of." Heero had managed to climb down from the horse without loosening his grip on Duo, he was now glaring at Takeo who was yet to push back his hood. "Once we know that he is well then we can begin mourning. It is the curse of Meirin that we must remember the living, and mind the dead." He took a long deep sigh, "Lady Minako has fallen, there will be a vigil in her honour and fasting, the women will weep and wail, but Lord Duo is fragile at present, we would not lose him also. Lord Heero, will you follow me, we have laid out a bed for you both, and liquor, or poppy milk if you have need. Lord Tobin, if you would help us with the necessary preparations for the requiem."

"How do you know our names?" Heero asked, eyes wide and for the first time since coming here genuinely afraid.

"We are the caretakers of Meirin." Takeo answered calmly, "The aegis both protects and informs us of what we need to know. Soon, you too, will hear the whispers of it in the wind. Come, the journey has been cruel and fast, you both need rest."

* * *

The town that rested under the tower of Meirin was short and squat with small square houses roofed in slate and they were completely unlike anything that Duo had seen. The palace of Halcyon was like something from a history novel of wealth, all luscious fabrics and dark woods. The walls in Meirin were permanent and bare, made of the dark granite with its glass sparkles, and they were icy to the touch. In the centre of the room was a small granite slab stained black from many fires, with the makings of another laid out. Instead of a thin mattress on the floor, as would be expected in such a place, there was a raised bed heaped high with blankets against the mountain chill. Clothes were laid across the bed, much like the ones Tobin and Josian wore, and lying on them was a single gold pendant that Duo had the terrible impression he had seen before, and was meant for him. He also suspected with a terrible clarity that everyone here was dead and had been for a very long time indeed. He couldn't have said where the impression came from, but he knew it to be true. He didn't like this place, as strange as it was; he had never felt more at home.

"Heero," he said looking at the dark haired boy that still held his hand when he sat on the bed. "Tell me it wasn't real."

Heero took a deep breath, "honesty means too much to you for me to lie to you, Duo, I do not understand what happened there but at the same time I know it was true. Lady Minako fell, murdered by the Seraphim and then the creatures came from the forest."

"I called them." Duo couldn't help the way his voice wavered as he said, "they were the Ningyo, and I called them, there was this girl on the field, and she had one wing, and she said to call them and I did, I couldn't see any other way."

"One wing?" Heero asked suddenly, he held Duo's hand and ran the pad of his thumb over the flesh of his palm. "There was a girl there with one wing?"

"Yes," Duo said lowering his eyes to watch the movement of Heero's thumb. Heero took a second deep breath and sat down beside Duo on the bed, putting his arm around him and pulling him into the crook of his neck, the other hand still ran it's thumb over his palm in a conciliatory gesture that Duo seemed to appreciate. "She scared me, she only appeared when Minako was killed and she knew things. She scared me, Heero, I didn't think anything did any more, except when I was scared someone might hurt you, but she terrified me, if you hadn't held me so tight I would have run from the field. I've never run from a fight in my life, Heero, and I wanted to run, then the Ningyo came to the field and I knew that the fear I had of her was nothing."

"There's something I should tell you." Heero said, looking down at where Duo's large eyes were fixed on him, they wavered and shone in the light. "In the chapel of many colours where I saw some of this world's prophecies, they featured a girl with one golden wing, and the boy in the prophecies looked like you. Tobin said that he would be the one to save or damn the world. I do not know what it means."

"Heero," Duo said, his hands clutching Heero's almost spasmodically. "I want to go home, I want to go to sleep and wake up on L2 again, and none of this to be true, I want nothing more than to talk to Quatre and Trowa and even Wufei. I hate this place, I want to go home, Heero, I just want to go home."

"Me too." Heero said quietly, "me too."

"Then kiss me, Heero, kiss me and smile for me and tell me it's going to be okay, tell me that everything's going to be okay and know that I'll believe you because it's you, because you're Heero, not because you are my Senshisha." Heero found no words to answer that, so he kissed him instead.

* * *

Tobin knocked on the heavy door before he came in. He looked very pale. Duo had started shivering so he had let Heero help him on with the heavy clothes and swaddle him protectively in the blankets that had been heaped on the bed. The maids had brought him hot cider which he clutched in both hands, but still he shivered. Heero had built the fire up in the grate and now he stared into it lackadaisically, as if it held the answers. "I," Tobin started but the words were lacking.

"Thank you." Heero said. "For taking care of him when I could not. We failed Mina, you and I, but we saved Duo." Heero waited on Duo's protestations that he could look after himself, that he didn't need saving, but it didn't come.

"I," Tobin started again.

"It's not your fault, you know." Duo said from the bed, but he didn't take his eyes off the plume of steam from the cider, "I think she knew, that's why she sent Mamoru away, because she knew, because she didn't want him to see, she didn't want him to die as well, and he would have. I think she loved him, you know, and I know he loved her, and now he has to find out that's she's gone and..." The words were suddenly gone.

"She was like a mother to me." Tobin said quietly, "when I had none, she was mother, sister, friend. I shared everything with her. She showed me my first snowfall, and fed me my first strawberry and…" Like Duo before him his voice trailed off.

"We loved her." Heero said, but did not raise his eyes from the fire. "Because she was kind, because she was selfless, because she was brave, and because she loved us." He had cut to the quick of it.

"Father Maxwell said we shouldn't mourn the dead, we should rejoice that we knew them." Duo said quietly. "But it's easier said than done." He raised the tankard, "to Minako," he said and then drained the cup dry.

"To Minako." The others repeated. Then there was silence.

* * *

After a while Duo left them to their small house and their wine. He left Heero asleep beside him and left the house to search out the tower. The air was bitterly chill and made his chest hurt. The temperature had dropped drastically since he had gone in for dinner and it was only twilight. The temperature would be below freezing at midnight.

It was almost impossible not to reach the tower. Every path in the town led to the tower and the mountain behind it. The small black caves were like a thousand eyes looking down at him, but their gaze was not acrimonious. They watched him, but couldn't have guessed the mountain's intention. He saw several of the robed figures, but no one barred his path. When he reached the tower the giant double doors were wide open. The floor was like a sheet of glass over the Soulsease river that thundered thousands of feet below. The tower was completely empty but for a flight of stairs that went both up and down, and hanging from the ceiling a hundred feet above him was a chunk of crystal, and in it, as if sleeping, was a woman of phenomenal beauty. Coiled around the giant shard of crystal was a skeletal beast that was built like a snake around a single ridged backbone, with four huge claws that went through the loops of its own body. The importance of the woman and the beast was lost on Duo.

Inset in the clear crystal floor was a design of a snake coiling in a figure eight before swallowing its own tail. It was the same design as on the pendant they had left out for him, and the ring that the empress had given both him and Heero. It made his mind up and he stepped away from the door as it closed behind him. It didn't surprise him.

The stairs that circled the walls went both up and down. The stairs that led up were marked with a silver bell, but those that led down were marked by the ouroborous. It made his decision for him. He descended.

It was a long thin corridor that got narrower and narrower on its way until it reached a small chamber with a hole in its centre. It was dark and he couldn't see anything. He wondered why someone had gone to such bother to build something so completely useless. He scratched his head and prepared to go back when he spotted a lantern to the right. It was lit and hooded as if someone who shouldn't have been there had left it behind. He picked it up and opened the panel to cast a beam of light around the room and saw the paintings.

The first one showed a figure with a pair of golden wings holding a glass ball in one hand, but on the other side at his feet was a shattered globe.

The second image showed two winged figures battling with matching black swords. They were both aloft and they destroyed each other as behind them a forest burned.

The third picture showed a golden woman holding the glass sphere and a black sword, behind her there was a loom that had been shattered.

The fourth image was the winged figure helping someone out from a grave in a fabulous cathedral.

The fifth showed an image eerily like the fourth but the winged figure had clearly killed the body.

The sixth figure was unambiguous, it was a ship sailing with tattered sails and all aboard it the crew was dead.

The six images were strange but the seventh image chilled Deakon to the bone. The winged figure was strangled by silver threads but the wings weren't his, a second figure was behind him with hair like golden fire and arms about his waist. One hand held aloft the silvery globe, the other globe had fallen almost carelessly, and around his neck was a torque, the mark of a draima gift, but there were three shadowy figures at his feet. Both had the figure holding him wore imperial crowns. It was not that that had disturbed Duo, the man had only one wing, the other had the other wing, but both had yellow eyes. These were the prophecies that Heero had spoken of, but that was the girl he had seen on the field, the girl who told him to call the Ningyo.

"What is this?" Duo asked the silence. The room was surrounded by the pictures.

"This is the Aegis." A female voice said behind him, "and these are the A'setra prophecies of the Draima Rei." The woman behind him was small and fair, her hair was a sprawl of moonlight down her back, she wore the same white robe that Minako had died in, but there was a strip of cloth over her eyes, "well come, Duo, are you ready to choose?"

"Who are you?" Duo asked.

"We have many names." She answered, and her voice was like sunlight falling through water. "We suppose the name you would find easiest is Termigent."

"That is the name of the Forest." Duo said, almost automatically.

"We are the Forest." She said, "We are this world, we are the gods and we are the void. We have come to hear the choice, the Aegis has the power to answer your questions, child, choose."

"What must I choose?" Duo asked.

"To save or damn the world." She answered calmly.

"But I just want to go home." Duo protested, no longer caring if it was childish or petulant to say that. "I,"

"The decision not to choose is also a choice, Duo." She answered. "We can send you back to your world if that is your choice, but you can still choose." Her smile was as ghostly as her appearance, "will you not choose?"

"No," Duo said crossing his arms across his chest.

"Then so be it," the woman said, there was no thunder to echo his decision, "We shall simply wait for the next to come who the prophecy foretold. Return to the house in Meirin, go to your Senshisha and go with our love. We shall return you to your home, but we reserve the right to call you again if the choice remains unmade."

"I don't understand." Duo protested.

"The loom is snarled," she said, "nothing can change, we have eternity to wait for another, the Pariako twisted it and broke the threads, until the threads are mended there can be no change. There will be stasis. Champions will search for he who is to come. You may still choose, Duo, to mend the loom or shatter it outright."

"No," he said, "I just want to go home, I want you to take back this power, I don't want to see the dead anymore. It's not like I'm not grateful but, I don't want it."

"We gave you no such gifts." The woman answered, "go to your Senshisha, and go with our love, know that we believe in you." She reached forward and kissed him on the forehead, and her kiss burned like ice.

Heero was asleep in the bed where Duo had left him. He stripped down to his underwear and climbed in beside him, spooning in behind him, in his sleep Heero turned over and threw his arm over Duo, pulling him close. Heero's skin was so hot after the outside chill it stung. "I love you." Duo murmured, "even if we're stuck here forever, I love you."

* * *

Heero awoke and without opening his eyes patted across the bed for Duo. He wasn't there. He cracked open one eye and noticed that he was in a hospital bed, that he was bandaged for many scrapes and bruises and that Duo slept peacefully in the next bed. Without opening both eyes enough to consider himself awake he threw back the blanket and padded across to Duo's bed, and then climbed in beside him, burying his nose in Duo's braid, reassured that he was fine, he went back to sleep.

On looking in on them Quatre nearly dropped his book in shock. He had sat with them in shifts with the other pilots for days and there had been no movement, despite the doctor's reassurance that they were merely sleeping, but now it seemed that Heero had moved, and for the first time his empathy was aware of them lying there, comfortably.

He decided not to disturb them.


End file.
